


The Lost Generation

by Dangerously_Demonic



Series: The Guide to Murder [11]
Category: Jurassic Park - All Media Types, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: AU of an AU, Gen, Human/Raptor Hybrids (Jurassic Park), I reject your canon and substitute my own, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Indoraptor Deserved Better, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom AU, Learning How to Human, Murder Likes Pokemon, Not Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Compliant, Pack Dynamics, Past Animal Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Rowan Stress Cooks, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-05-13 03:01:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19242484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangerously_Demonic/pseuds/Dangerously_Demonic
Summary: InGen has fallen, driven under by a combination of: the incident at Jurassic World, the news of Dr. Henry Wu's secret project: the Indominus rex, and released documents about InGen's Black Project Files. Despite being stripped of his awards, licenses, and distinctions, Wu continues his work. His new crowning achievement? A perfect hybrid between the only surviving human-raptor hybrid, carefully crafted close to twenty years ago on Isla Sorna, and the Indominus rex.Wu names it 'The Indoraptor'.





	1. Prologue: Raptor 3.0

**Author's Note:**

> AU of an AU. Fun times. Basically what might have happened if Murder didn't get off Nublar during the I. rex's rampage.
> 
> Who tf is Murder, you ask? [The Guide to Murder](https://archiveofourown.org/series/973206).
> 
> Blame FeralCreed. Always blame FeralCreed.

Mr. Mills,

Thank you for the laboratory accommodations, they will serve our purposes well. However, there are a few key pieces of equipment and I have enclosed a separate list for your viewing. While several are merely for quality of life purposes, I have indicated the ones that are critical for my work.

You will be pleased to hear that all of my tissue samples have survived intact, including the one from Jurassic World’s Utahraptor, Alpha. As I have mentioned in prior conversations, I believe him to be the last remaining hybrid project my deceased friend, Dr. James Kurt, worked on. While it is unknown if he survived the incident at the park, I still have enough viable material to work with for future projects.

I personally believe that combining his DNA with that of the I. rex will yield a very intelligent and dangerous weapon. I am interested in hearing your thoughts with this idea.

H.W

* * *

 

Mr. Mills,

I trust that your meeting in Miami has gone well. Per your request, I am updating you on the tentatively titled ‘Indoraptor’ project. Alpha’s, hereon called ‘RH-34’ per the released InGen Black Project Files, DNA is proving difficult to work with. Due to the heavy modification Dr. Kurt did, any addition of new DNA to the genome causes it to unravel.  Unfortunately, the combination of two stable genomes does not always result in a new, stable genome. Still, I have a few ideas to avoid this issue. I will continue to keep you updated.

H.W

* * *

 

Mr. Mills,

The first batch of Indoraptor eggs have hatched, or rather, only one of them did. Even then, it was a colossal failure. While the Indoraptor hatched, it died shortly afterwards. An autopsy showed significantly underdeveloped lungs. The rest of the eggs were broken open, revealing dead Indoraptors, many of which with severe physical deformities. I will spare you the details, but it seems the human DNA is causing the issues. It does make sense, in a way. The human DNA could be causing the need for an extended incubation time. Regardless, I have a new direction in which to head using the modifications I selected for the briefly surviving Indoraptor.

H.W

* * *

 

Mr. Mills,

The second batch of Indoraptor eggs have hatched. Much like the first batch, most of them passed shortly after hatching. However, we do have a success. Due to how weak he is, I am not entirely sure if he will survive, but he has the feistiness of his ‘father’, RH-34. I can only hope he inherited RH-34’s tenacity and sheer stubbornness towards survival.

For the time being, he has been placed in one of the hatchling incubators so we can better control the heat, humidity, and oxygen levels. I have included a picture of him. Please note that his coloration is a bit dull at the moment and should bright as he ages, should he survive. I will update you on his condition as needed.

H.W

* * *

 

Mr. Mills,

I implore you to better control your men during the Indoraptor’s training sessions. While nearly fully grown physically, he is still mentally immature. His ‘temper tantrums’, as they put it, are either a result of poor communication on their part or him getting overstimulated. They would do well to review Mr. Grady’s videos on how he trained his raptors. I also strongly protest the fact that the cattle prods are used as punishment.

I realize you are busy, but I would like to set up a meeting to discuss many aspects of how the Indoraptor is currently being treated. I remind you: he is a prototype and all parts of his environment must be perfect to rule out any behavior or physical issues.

Please let me know when you have time available to meet.

H.W


	2. Escape Turned Upside Down

Maybe escaping the pen during the chaos of the park had been a bit of a dick move, but Murder honestly just wanted to be left alone after everything that’d happened so far. Yes, he had bonded to Rowan, but the idea of being back in civilization terrified him. That being said, he also doubted that Rowan would give up on him so easily. Still, he had his freedom again.

It was just like being back on Sorna. Well, not exactly. He wasn’t really alone, anymore. Owen’s remaining raptor, Blue, formed a loose pack with him. Raptors were social animals and with her pack being gone, she searched for another. Murder had gotten used to having people around and also desired the aspect of a pack. While they didn’t always get along since they butted heads constantly, and there were minor communication issues, it made hunting easier.

Still, as time passed, they figured out the differences in language and earlier hostilities slowly became a thing of the past. That being said, it wasn’t uncommon for them to split off to do their own things, then meet back up at some building they’d decided to call ‘home’. All and all, it was a bit idyllic.

Unfortunately, good things never last and frequently come to an end in one way or another. In this case, the end started as faint tremors. The tremors could have easily been mistaken for a large sauropod, had there been any around. Worryingly, they seemed strongest at the north end of the island, at the base of the mountain. The next sign was how the fish in the ponds and streams around the mountain began dying off…Then the water started to _boil_.

Murder didn’t know what was going on, just that it wasn’t good. Against his better judgement, he explored the area and half climbed the mountain, only stopping when it became too steep for him to continue. He saw more than enough to know what was going on: red hot, molten rock slowly bubbling out of cracks in the earth. Being on an island with an active volcano probably wasn’t the best thing in the world.

With the volcano on Nublar making angry rumbles, Murder knew he was steadily running out of time in a much, much worse way than he had on Sorna. On Sorna, he’d been faced with the slowly approaching threat of death in the form of starvation. Of course, he would have been able to fight tooth and nail by turning to alternative means of finding food, but he figured it’d catch up with him at some point. Now? The volcano could erupt at any time and while he could survive a lot of things, he doubted he could survive _that_.

So, when helicopters, soldiers, and all manner of other things showed up on the island to capture dinosaurs, he already knew what he had to do: survival at all costs. He just didn’t particularly care for the idea of being captured again. All the BS that happened with the park came to mind, but the only alternative was a very, very nasty death.

Then he heard a distant call, one he hadn’t heard in what had likely been years. He returned the call and tilted his head in hopes that it hadn’t been his imagination. There was only one person who used that call. Not Owen, not Kaitlyn, only _Rowan_.

The call was returned. It took him a good few minutes of calling back and forth to find Rowan. The merc hadn’t changed much, his hair was a bit longer, maybe a few more grey hairs and wrinkles on his face, but he looked the same. Softly, Murder cooed out a greeting as he walked to the man and Rowan gave his characteristic devil-may-care grin.

“It’s good to see you, too, you big ass lizard. But we gotta go.” Rowan slipped the backpack off he had with him and quickly opened it to pull out clothes that would fit Murder. “Volcano’s going to blow any time and I don’t wanna be on the island when it goes.”

It took Murder a moment to shift to human and get dressed, but before he could even stand up from tying his shoes, Rowan had already started walking. He quickly caught up, but glanced over his shoulder at the angry rumble the volcano gave. The tremors had gotten more frequent in recent days, more violent, too. Looking back to Rowan, “Where we going?”

“Uh, some guy is financing a recovery of as many dinosaurs as we can get. Claims that he’s got this private reserve set up on some island where they can live in peace. If you ask me, it sounds fucking sketchy as shit. Claire took it hook, line and sinker. Owen wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for Blue. Figure that we can get on the main boat and fuck off when we get a chance.” Rowan gave Murder a faint smile. “Always figured I’d be coming back to this place at some point to get you. I couldn’t stomach the idea of leaving you here by yourself…Not when you always hated being alone. So, I’ve been getting ready these past few years. Got a nice place up in Washington state. InGen paid a shitton of money after Jurassic World went to hell. Got a very nice ‘severance package’…Hush money, for obvious reasons. So, paid for the place in cash under a fake name.”

Murder quietly snorted, but didn’t say anything as they stepped onto one of the roads and made their way towards the central plaza, then towards the docks. He carefully avoided making eyesight with anyone and had stolen Rowan’s hat to help in this. The merc hadn’t complained and instead agreed with it. They both knew that if anyone saw Murder’s eyes, the gig would be up: humans just didn’t have raptor eyes. While Murder didn’t know if the person behind this particular retrieval knew about his existence, he trusted Rowan’s gut instinct about things.

Both of them agreed that if they got separated that it’d be wise to play along and regroup at a later time. Thankfully, due to Murder’s height and overall rough appearance, no one really came to bother them. Still, the longer he saw what was happening, the more Murder agreed with Rowan’s assessment. Something about all of this felt… _Off_. Especially the man who kept taking tooth trophies. One of these days, he’d likely run into something that’d take offense to the trophy taking. For now, Murder played human.

Quietly, he leaned against the rail and stared out across the water, then glanced at Rowan before speaking quietly. “Don’t like it.”

“Don’t like what?”

He vaguely gestured at the activity around them. “Feels wrong.”

“Yeah. It’s got that bad feeling I’d get when some mission I was on was gonna go to shit.” Rowan sighed and went quiet as someone passed behind them. Once the soldier was out of earshot, “Maybe I’m just paranoid and this guy really _is_ wanting to set up a reserve, but…I don’t know man. Shit doesn’t feel right.”

The feeling only got worse once they reached the mainland and the caravan started. Murder sat in the back of a truck and stared at the cage in front of him. The adult triceratops remained sedated, but the youngster next to it made quiet warbles of fear.  Sighing, he leaned forward and reached through the bars to lightly rub the creature’s frill; Murder could absolutely understand how the dinosaur felt. He pushed away from the bars when the truck slowed to a stop and sent Rowan a concerned glance.

Rowan tried to peer through the small hole he made in the canvas, then whispered, “I’m seeing a mansion of some sort. Bunch of cars parked outside and a whole lot of rich looking assholes.”

When the truck started moving again, they soon found themselves at a loading bay where they ‘helped’ unload the cage, meaning they were able to slip off when the next truck arrived. There, they found themselves in a large room with differently sized holding pens. A few already had dinosaurs in them. Rowan squinted slightly when he looked into a pen. “I could…Maybe see them temporarily holding the dinosaurs to do vet checks before taking them to the island. But…I don’t know. Still seems fishy.”

Distantly, something caught Murder’s attention and he grabbed Rowan’s arm to drag him along. He ignored the soft protest that the other man made and carefully opened a door wide enough for them to peek out. The large room was primarily illuminated by strong ceiling mounted flood lights that directed everyone’s attention to the cage that was slowly moving along a track. Up on the wall was a massive screen that detailed information about the dinosaur, the current bid, and who the bidder was.

“Auction…” Murder said softly as he closed the door and looked to Rowan who had a tight-lipped look.

“Fuckin’ slimy bastard.” Rowan rubbed his face and sighed. “Christ, I don’t know if we can do anything. Hell, I don’t even know if Owen and the others got off the island. I think the IT guy they hauled along did. Pretty sure I saw him on deck.”

Murder leaned against the piping and made a soft, raspy snort and then shrugged. “Just us.”

“Yeah, but we gotta at least look for them.”

“Hey! The fuck are you two doing up here?” A soldier walked towards them, looking suspicious of what they were doing.

Rowan gave a charming smile. “Oh, hey. Was looking for the shitter. My buddy here ate one of those really _bad_ MREs and…CHRIST, MURDER!”

Rather than going with the tale Rowan was attempting to spin, Murder simply grabbed the soldier by the side of the head and slammed him against one of the metal pipes, very effectively caving the side of the man’s head in. “No bullshit.”

“...Dude, that’s nasty. I can like…See his brains.” Still, Rowan moved over to snatch up the dead man’s rifle and frisk him for extra magazines.

“Sniper.” Murder jabbed a finger at Rowan after the man stood up.

“Well, yeah, but I’m usually like…half a kilometer away when I pop their heads.” At the unimpressed look he was given, Rowan finally just held his hands up. “Just saying it wasn’t a good idea, ‘cause you left a body.”

He ignored Rowan’s comment and tried to figure out what they could do. Looking to the other man, “Control center?”

“That’s not a bad idea. With what they’re running, they’re bound to have _something_. Problem’s going to be finding it.” Rowan looked around and frowned. “No cameras. That’s weird.”

A sudden roar from the auction room caught Murder’s attention and he made an inquisitive noise as he opened the door to peek in, again. He stared at the black and gold predator for a long moment before blindly grabbing Rowan’s shirt and dragging the man over.

“What the fu—” Rowan protested at the rough handling but abruptly shut up when he spotted what had gotten Murder’s attention. While the dinosaur was larger than Murder and capable of moving onto all fours, it undeniably looked like a scrawnier, somewhat unhealthier version of Murder’s raptor form mixed with something else. “…So. Did you do something with the Indominus rex that you neglected to tell me about? Don’t answer that. Wait, shit. Is that Wu?”

“Think so.”

“Kaitlyn said the guy took tissue samples from you when you first got to the park because they didn’t know what type of raptor you were. Bet the fucker did shit with what he took.” He abruptly shut up again when a small dinosaur, followed by Owen broke into the room. “Oh, hey. Mr. Know-It-All-About-Raptors made it.”

Not really in the mood for Rowan’s snark, Murder shut the door and started dragging him down the hallway. “Control room.”

“Yeah, yeah yeah…”

Unfortunately, finding a control room proved to be a lot more difficult. About the only thing they found was a double doored emergency exit and an elevator that required an access card that they didn’t have. Rowan glared at the buttons on the elevator control panel.

“So, we find someone with access, kill him, and take his card.” Next to him, Murder made an inquisitive chirp. Rowan stepped out of the elevator to see what had gotten Murder’s attention and froze when he saw the giant-ass not-Murder-raptor further down the hall. Immediately, he shouldered the rifle, not sure if it’d do much damage to the beast. “Fucking great.”

Murder snapped his hand out and shoved the barrel of the rifle down. “No.”

“I know you’re kinda weird, but are you fucking _insane_? It’s going to kill us.” The harsh, snarling bark that came from further down the hall was proof of that idea.

“No.” He gestured at the creature, reading more into the body language than Rowan could ever hope to. The bark was a warning sound and the opened mouth hissing showed defensiveness. “It’s scared.”

While Rowan held a great deal of trust and respect for Murder, he felt the hybrid was being nothing short of insane. “If you go over there, it’s going to rip you apart.”

Fear aggression. Murder knew all too well how it felt. To have control of nothing, to barely know what was going on…Some reacted by hiding, others lashed out. If this creature had been made from whatever samples Wu had taken, then it made perfect sense to him that it’d act like him. There was another concern at play: the age of the beast. Rowan had told him that three years had passed, and assuming Wu had gotten to work right after The Incident, as Rowan had called it? Factoring incubation time, it couldn’t have been more than two and a half years old. Carefully, he took a step forward and made a soft cooing chirp. More of a statement of his curiosity than anything.

“Murder, don’t do this. It’s dangerous.”

“Said that about me.” Murder noted. Still, Rowan did have a point. He _was_ a bit more delicate as a human and would be outweighed by a great deal. With that in mind, he quickly stripped, ignoring the other man’s frustrated noise.

Sourly, Rowan watched the man turned Utahraptor slowly walk towards the…What had the auctioneer called it, the Indoraptor? “This is the stupidest fucking idea.”

He kept his movements lazy as he walked towards the other raptor. It, or rather, he, now that Murder had caught the scent better, hadn’t moved. Instead, he’d kept the same defensive position. Finally, he stopped walking and stretched his neck out, making a soft, chittering noise. He was only curious, and tried to convey that in his body language. The other raptor tilted his head and almost seemed…Confused.

While he didn’t know if the raptor knew what he was ‘saying’, he took it as a good sign and continued walking forward. At least the other had stopped hissing and taken on a more neutral pose. Finally, Murder stopped in front of him and carefully stretched out his neck to sniff of the other. Somewhat different from his own scent, but it caused a part of his brain to throw up all sorts of confused signals because there _was_ enough similarity. It ran through the options of the other raptor being a packmate, a sibling, an offspring, before his brain just finally threw up the equivalent of a giant, flashing question mark.

Honestly, Murder imagined that the other raptor’s brain was doing much the same thing. He remained still and allowed himself to be sniffed, well aware that the teeth could do some damage. On the other hand, he also knew that predators of similar sizes didn’t usually try to attack each other. It was too risky and a severe injury could spell death in the form of starvation. But Murder also wasn’t stupid. He knew this raptor had _also_ been kept in a lab for the entirety of his life and very well could be insane.

Murder doubted this, however. He softly cooed and bumped his head against the other’s head as a statement of greeting. Unexpectedly, the raptor jerked back and snarled, prompting Murder to return the sound, but also snap his jaws to indicate that he didn’t approve of the sudden aggressiveness. This yielded another snarl and he simply nipped the other raptor’s shoulder in a disciplinary action. The problem with immediately declaring himself boss was that the other _also_ considered himself to be boss and Murder had to quickly jump back to avoid being shoved into the wall. A narrow corridor really, really wasn’t a good spot to be having a dominance spat.

However, he knew he had the advantage. The other raptor was young, inexperienced. Murder was 30, and had spent more of his life as a hybrid than he had a human. The other was underweight, almost sickly. While he’d lost weight from his time in ‘captivity’, Murder had turned the fat he’d gained into lean muscle and likely outweighed the raptor in front of him by a solid couple hundred pounds.

Instead of waiting for the other to react, he lunged forward, slamming all of his weight into the other raptor’s side. It squawked in surprise and Murder quickly followed it up by swinging his head into the other’s head. The action stunned the raptor and caused him to have a brief burst of stars in his vision, but he wasn’t done. Immediately, he pounced, fully knocking the other to the floor and snapped his jaws down around the back of the raptor’s neck, near the base of his head. There, Murder very lightly shook his head and growled while using his weight to keep the other pinned. Thanks to the years of hunting by himself, he’d learned the tactic of: attack fast and hard. The enemy or prey wouldn’t have a chance to recover if the fight was over before it started.

The other raptor struggled for a moment, trying to buck him off, which only caused him to strengthen his bite as a means of saying that he was serious. Unexpectedly, the other _screamed_ out an alarm call, each inhale was stuttered as he essentially begged Murder not to kill him. Honestly, that was all Murder really needed and released the other’s neck, making a soft noise of reassurement as he moved away a few feet. He didn’t quite know what to expect, now. The other bolting or perhaps attacking. Both options were things he’d do. Murder absolutely did not expect the other raptor to press his head to his side and make a soft, uncertain noise.

He looked to Rowan who had an expression of ‘what the fuck?’, before walking towards the man with the raptor remaining pressed against his side. Knowing that the raptor was watching him closely, Murder cooed at Rowan and nosed the side of his head to indicate that they were friendly. After a moment, he shifted back to human and made a grabby motion at his clothes that Rowan held. Once he had them in hand, he started getting dressed. “Told you.”

“I…Murder, _no_. What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Rowan side eyed the Indoraptor as it peered over Murder’s shoulder at him. “That thing’s dangerous.”

“He’s scared. Going home.” Then, he bared his teeth at the other man. “ _I_ was dangerous. Owen said I’d kill you.”

Rowan glanced away and sighed, knowing that Murder was right. How many times had Owen scolded him about having his back to Murder? Still, he didn’t like the idea. “You’re human, though. The Indoraptor isn’t.”

“Not human.” Murder replied, irritatedly, and reached over to gently rub the raptor’s nose. Then, he glanced over at the soft, confused noise he received. Again, he cooed reassuringly before looking back to Rowan. “He smells like me.”

“Just…Gimme a moment to think.” He took a few steps back and sighed, trying to push away the stress of being near such a large predator. Honestly, he had no idea how Murder could be so calm and also had no idea why he was even considering things. “Okay. I can…Rent a U-Haul or something in the morning and I can get him up to the property. You’ll just have to keep him calm and make sure he doesn’t eat anyone. Can you do that?”

Murder nodded and turned to head towards the double doors. “Woods.”

“Murder, wait. Here.” Rowan held out his phone. “I’ll pick up a cheapy and I’ll call you, alright?”

Taking the phone, Murder tapped it and then faintly smiled at the lock screen: it was a picture of him sleeping as a raptor with Rowan sitting against him, napping. He didn’t really know when the picture had been taken, but assumed Kaitlyn took it. Tucking the phone into his pocket, he softly called to the raptor and started walking for the emergency doors. Behind him, he heard the sound of the creature walking.

When they got outside, the Indoraptor froze and heavily sniffed the air as he looked around. Murder frowned, wondering if the raptor had ever been outside of the lab. He wrapped his arm under the creature’s neck and quickly led him towards the tree line, softly making encouraging noises as they walked. Once they reached a grove of evergreens, he stopped and sat down with a soft sigh. This hadn’t been how he thought his day would go. He looked over when the raptor laid down next to him before he reached over and gently scratched the beast’s neck. Then, he looked towards where they’d come from, and waited.


	3. Home

The sound of Rowan’s phone going off caused him to spasm and it took him a moment to realize that he’d fallen asleep; it was daylight now. He fished the phone out of his pocket and tapped the button to answer it. “Hello?”

“Oh, good. You didn’t get eaten. I’m parked out in front of the mansion. I don’t think anyone’s around, but you’ll probably wanna get Indo out here and loaded pretty quickly.”

“Alright.” Hanging up, he looked over at…Well, Indo was a decent name for the time being. The raptor watched him intently for a moment before making a quiet chirrup. Murder brushed his hand over Indo’s snout then got up to his feet to start walking, only briefly pausing to use the bathroom. He grimaced at the unhappy grumble of hunger his stomach made and hoped that Rowan had brought some sort of food. Indo seemed to be of the same mindset and quietly made a noise of hunger.

Murder simply rumbled his agreement and squinted a bit at the sunlight when they stepped out of the trees. Next to him, Indo tightly pressed his neck against his side, nearly knocking Murder over in the process. For the moment, he pushed away the desire to snarl at the raptor for invading his personal space. That wasn’t what was needed at the moment.

The front area of the manor, while once pristine, was littered with destroyed vehicles and the occasional body. Still, Rowan and the U-Haul truck stood out amongst the carnage. Making his way over, Murder eyed the Wal-Mart bags sitting on the floor of the truck. Rowan stood up from where he’d been sitting and warily watched Indo, clearly not finding him to be any better looking in the daylight.

“I got you some burgers and water. Figured Big and Toothy there would probably be hungry, too, and you’d bitch at me if I didn’t get anything for ‘em.” Turning, he pulled out a paper bag from some restaurant that Murder didn’t recognize and then some large, packaged chunk of meat. “I’ll let you feed him since I wanna keep my hand.”

He rolled his eyes at Rowan and took the offered knife to cut away the plastic that covered the meat. Immediately, Indo sniffed the air and moved in to snatch the meat away from Murder. This action quickly earned him a smack to the snout and a snarl. Once Indo had backed away, Murder finished unwrapping the meat, then dropped it off to the side and made a soft noise to invite the raptor back. Then, he wiped his hands clean on some cheap napkins and focused on his own food.

“It’s weird that he listens to you…But I still don’t trust him.” Rowan watched Indo slink back over and easily down the chunk of meat. While the dinosaur probably needed a great deal more food, it’d have to do for the time being. “I’m convinced that he’s going to eat your face at some point.”

Murder ignored both Rowan and Indo in favor of his food. Not only was he feeling half starved, he also hadn’t had a good burger in three years. He’d missed them, honestly. Still, he finished the food off and wadded up his trash before peering into the rest of the Wal-Mart bags. There, he found a few water bottles and three-gallon sized jugs of water. Presumably, the latter was for Indo. Grabbing one, he popped the lid off of it and let Indo smell of it.

Immediately, the raptor tried to bite the top of the jug. Murder carefully pushed his head back with one hand and manipulated it so he could pour some of the water into the raptor’s mouth. It took Indo a moment to realize what was going on, but he quickly kneeled down so he could tilt his head back a bit better. Murder raised an eyebrow at this, but honestly? Neither of them really knew how smart Indo was. Considering he looked to have Indominus in him as well as Murder’s own brand of weird? Murder was hedging on: pretty fucking smart.

With Indo fed and watered, Murder climbed into the back of the U-Haul with a sigh and moved to the back where he sat down. There, he called to Indo to coax him in. Initially, the raptor gave him a wary look before slowly climbing it. He paused and tapped his claws on the flooring for a moment to listen to the sound it made before finally laying down.

“It’s about a ten to eleven-hour drive…Depending on how traffic goes, but I’ll try to pull over every three or four hours to see if you need anything.” Rowan lingered at the front of the truck as he considered something. “Hey, give me my phone back, it’s probably about dead by now. I’ll give you this cheapy I have and I’ll charge my phone on the drive. We can swap phones at every break.”

Grunting, Murder got up and shuffled to the front of the truck then exchanged phones with Rowan before returning to where Indo had laid down. Rowan glanced over his phone. “Hoo, yeah. Sitting at 7%. Surprised it lasted long enough for me to call you. Anyway. If you need me, my number’s the only one in the address book.”

The moment the back of the truck was closed, Indo made a low, drawn out whine. Murder blinked in the darkness and made a quiet sound as he touched the raptor’s head. Immediately, there was a flurry of movement as the dinosaur squirmed around so he could press the side of his head against Murder’s chest. Honestly, Murder felt baffled about this, but draped his arm over the back of Indo’s neck and lightly rubbed the side of his snout. He didn’t know enough about the raptor to make any sort of guess about why he might be acting this way, but he suspected it had to do with the lab.

It took him a moment to realize that there was subtle tremor under the pebbly skin. Murder tilted his head curiously and moved his hand to Indo’s shoulder where he could feel a more solid muscle tremor. He didn’t get long to think about it when the truck’s engine started, prompting Indo to solidly press his head against Murder’s chest, pinning him against the wall. He’d done a similar thing to Owen a few years ago, but for a much different reason.

Murder had done it out of anger and as a display of power to strongarm Owen into doing what he wanted. Indo was doing it out of fear, if the sudden tangy scent was any indication, and very likely, the raptor didn’t know how strong he was. One thing was for certain, however, Murder _was not_ going to spend the entire trip like this. He scooted away from Indo, freeing himself, but the upset squawk caused him to pause long enough for the raptor to grab his leg and yank him back.

He fully expected to see teeth going for his head, as Rowan had claimed would happen. Instead, he found himself being held tightly while Indo all but curled up around him, still making quiet whines under his breath. Had it been happening to someone else, Murder likely would have found it hilarious. However, he wasn’t amused at the idea of being treated like a giant teddy bear. He barked out a snarl and smacked Indo on the nose, startling the raptor long enough for him to get away. This time, he was left alone…But he sighed at how Indo had taken to huddling in the corner.

Some might call it pathetic. Murder, unfortunately, could relate all too well. Upon arriving at Jurassic World, he’d opted to mostly hide in the undergrowth of his pen for the first week and only slinked out to eat or get a drink. Finally, he sighed and stripped, then shifted before laying down next to Indo. Somehow, he found himself unsurprised when the raptor wedged his head between them. Indo’s behavior was honestly puzzling to Murder. Was he just stressed, or was he afraid of the dark? It could be one or the other, or even both. Murder figured that he could sort things out later.

Mentally, he grumbled to himself for a bit before finally purring, the sound low and deep in his chest. He’d done it plenty of times for Rowan since it always seemed to make him feel better. Indo froze for a long few moments before finally shifted himself to press an ear against Murder’s side. Rather than making any sort of noise, Murder simply yawned, the purr briefly shifting to a throaty clicking. Then, he used Indo’s back to itch the bottom of his jaw. Silently, he disapproved of how he could feel bones, but he pushed the thought out of his mind; that could be dealt with later along with everything else. For now, he closed his eyes in order to nap. With how long the trip would be, and how little he slept? Sleeping it away sounded like a fantastic idea

The default ring for the phone Rowan had given him was nothing short of obnoxious and Murder glared at it when it woke him from his sleep. Grumbling, he hooked his jeans with a claw and dragged them over to him. It took him a moment later to answer the phone and he let out an annoyed, raspy snort.

On the other end, Rowan paused at the sound having expected to hear Murder’s voice instead of a raptor sound. “Went raptor, huh? Won’t lie, I was getting worried with how long it was taking for you to answer. You doing good back there?”

Murder simply yawned before looking over at Indo who seemed to have calmed down from the small bit of light the phone produced. Interesting. Maybe he _was_ scared of the dark. Shifting his attention back to the phone, he rumbled and shifted back to human again to pick up the phone. “Hungry.”

“You’re always fucking hungry, Murder.” Rowan commented, drily, after recovering from how the phone managed to make the noises of Murder shifting sound even worse. “But yeah. I can grab you something. How’s Big Toothy?”

It surprised Murder to hear Rowan asking about Indo, but he supposed the man had resigned himself to the idea of carting around the raptor. “Still scared. Probably hungry, too.”

Rowan was silent, contemplating what Indo could _possibly_ be scared of. Then again, he supposed that it could be just about anything. “Gimmie a moment. Lemme check something. I’ll call you back.” After Murder confirmed, he brought up Google Maps and did some quick poking around before he called Murder back. “Google Maps is saying that there’s a Wal-Mart in two exits. How about I get you one of those baked chickens they’re always selling and I’ll get Toothy another chunk of meat. You’ll have to wait till I get outta the town to get the food. Does that work?”

“Yes.” Murder paused a half moment before adding, “Lemon pepper?”

“You fuckin’ love that stuff, don’t you?” He laughed and grinned. “Yeah, I’ll get you lemon pepper if they have it.”

“Good.” Saying nothing further, Murder hung up before pulling his pants on. Then, he yawned and rubbed his face. Quite frankly, the first thing he planned on doing when they got to Rowan’s was to take a fucking shower and get cleaned up. Admittedly, he’d been able to keep his hair and beard decently managed thanks to him scavenging a bunch of different supplies shortly after the park had been abandoned. That didn’t mean that he hadn’t missed the luxury of a hot shower, something that he’d always enjoyed when Rowan snuck him out of the pen.

Still feeling a bit sleepy, he tapped the phone and eyed the time. It looked like nearly five hours had passed, which hopefully meant that they were halfway to Rowan’s. Honestly, the past twenty-four hours had been a ride and a half. It’d gone from ‘escape the island’ to ‘going to a new home with a hybrid raptor’. Next to him, Indo made an unhappy noise, but abruptly went silent when Murder flopped against him.

Making a bit of a face, he ran his hand over the raptor’s side then scowled at how he could feel each and every rib without even pressing hard. It reminded him of the shape he’d been in shortly before his ‘capture’. Quietly, he grunted, “Assholes.”

He impatiently waited for Rowan to find a safe place to park. While he was always hungry to some degree, Murder felt hungrier than usual thanks to all of the shifting he’d done recently. It took energy to change and he had to eat to replenish that energy. So, when he heard the back of the truck unlocking, he eagerly got up. However, he grabbed the bottom of the roll up door to keep it from completely opening. While he felt he had decent control over Indo, he didn’t trust the raptor to completely bolt. “Slide the food under.”

“You worried about him running?” When Murder confirmed, Rowan didn’t try to open the door any further. Curiously, he peeked under and grimaced at two reflective eyes that stared back at him; Indo had a hell of an intense gaze. “I managed to get you lemon pepper and fucking Christ, Murder. Warn a dude before you whip it out to piss.”

Murder ignored Rowan from where he kneeled. If he had another five or so hours of travel, he didn’t want to be holding it the entire time. When the other man continued to make a big deal out of it, Murder huffed. “Seen it plenty of times.”

“Yeah, but, it’s the principle of the matter!”

“Had to pee.” He noted.

This caused Rowan to make an exasperated noise as he sat down on the bumper, far away from where Murder had pissed. “I realize this, but _next time_ , let me know so I’m not watching you pull your junk out. Obviously, you’ve forgotten common decency.”

“I. Had. To. Pee.” Murder repeated, but then it was his turn to make an exasperated noise, knowing that Rowan would continue to complain. He stuck his hand under the door. “Knife.”

With the knife in hand, he opened the packaging and lobbed the meat towards Indo, then passed the knife back to Rowan before he dug into his chicken. Behind him, the raptor slunk over to the meat and quickly downed it before slowly creeping over to Murder.

Murder pulled his chicken closer to him and grumpily growled. One thing he hasn’t ever managed to shake was his inclination to be possessive over his food. However, Indo reached out to grab at the chicken, prompting Murder to snarl-bark and snap his teeth.

“Dude, don’t get into a fight with Indo, you’ll frickin’ lose right now.” Rowan commented from the bumper as he worked on eating his burger. “You’re a great guy and all, but I’m not saving you if he decides to eat your face.”

Rather than attacking, Indo made a raspy noise and laid down on his stomach where he made light grabby motions at Murder’s food. For the most part, Murder ignored this while he ate, but noted something interesting. “Three fingers and a thumb.”

“Huh.” Rowan held his hand under the door to offer Murder an onion ring. It was almost like being back at Jurassic World. “So, sorta like you but not. ‘Cause you have the four fingers and a thumb thing going on as a raptor. I wonder, if he really _is_ made from the samples Wu took from you, how much he’ll act like you.”

“Thin.” Murder replied as he took the onion ring. “Like me.”

“You mean when you first got to the park?” After Murder agreed, Rowan sighed. “And once you got your weight back, you turned into a fucking shit head.”

“Was scared. Didn’t know what was happening.” Murder paused to pull a chunk of meat off the chicken and pop it into his mouth. “Didn’t know what’d happen to me. Just lots of soldiers.”

“Maybe…I don’t know, Murder. I just feel like it’s a bad idea to be hauling this thing around. I’m pretty sure it killed people.” Rowan jumped when his phone went off. “…Huh. It’s Owen. Yo. What up? Yeah, I have all my limbs. Headed up to Washington state…Probably got another five hours to go, kinda depends on how traffic is, you know how it goes. Uhhuh. Yeah. I found him. Yeah, he is. He’s doing alright. Bitching about being hungry, but what else is new? Actually. Hang on. Lemme put you on speaker, I’m trying to eat.”

“…how he does at the new place. It probably wouldn’t hurt to have Kaitlyn come out to look him over.” Owen commented.

Rowan winced slightly at the suggestion of Kaitlyn. “That…Might not be a good idea…”

“Why?”

Murder rolled his eyes, bracing himself for Rowan bitching about Indo for the next ten minutes. Honestly, he had things under control.

“So, when you came busting into the auction room, you saw that big ass predator in the cage, right?”

“The Indoraptor. Wu claimed he combined Murder’s DNA and the Indominus’ DNA to create it. The thing fucked off and I have no idea where it went, which…Really concerns me. That thing was deadly.” The concern in Owen’s voice was clear.

“Yeaaaah…I know where it is.” Rowan glanced over his shoulder where Murder had sighed.

“Murder killed it?”

“No…I mean, they tussled. But uh…”

“Where is it, Rowan?”

“So, I’m driving cross county in a 27-foot U-Haul truck that’s currently got Indo and Murder in the back of it because _someone_ saw his lab created bastard son and decided to adopt it.” Rowan sipped his drink. “And that’s been my morning.”

“…What.”

“Yup! That was pretty much my response when Murder told me that we were taking Indo with us.” Rowan reached into the bag to grab another onion ring and found the bag suspiciously empty. “Hey, asshole, did you eat my onion rings?”

“No.” Came Murder’s voice that was, in no way, suspiciously muffled by onion rings.

“Rowan, please tell me you’re joking.”

“I am not. We were looking for the control room because we figured we could do some damage in there. Indo showed up at the end of the hall and I guess Murder was trying to be friendly. Indo snarled at him and Murder whooped his ass. After that, Indo was basically clinging to Murder. I don’t know how he’s doing it, but he’s keeping the damn thing in line.” Rowan sadly stared at his empty bag of onion rings, but knew he wouldn’t get them back; Murder would just somehow manage to inhale them all.

“Probably a dominance fight. Blue and Echo did the same thing. After Blue won, Echo didn’t try to challenge her again. Then again, look at how much time and work I put in with my raptors and how easily the Indominus was able to take control. I’m not supporting what Murder did _at all_ , but the Indoraptor might be following him because he sees him as a strong pack leader.” Owen sighed. “Just…Be careful Rowan. That thing was kept in a lab all his life. There’s no telling if he’s mentally stable.”

“Murder said when he first saw Indo that he was scared. So…I don’t know.”

“Well, some animals act aggressively when they’re fearful.” Owen noted, thoughtfully. “I’ll let you get back to driving. Just…Be careful.”

“I am the epitome of caution.” Rowan laughed at Owen’s snort of disbelief. “Stay outta trouble, man.”

Once Owen had hung up, Rowan started gathering up the trash. “You done eating?” He grabbed Murder’s trash after it’d been held out to him. “I’m gonna do the long haul. Next time we stop, it’ll be at the property. If you need to stop early, call me.”

Getting up, Murder returned to his original position at the back of the truck and grimaced at Indo immediately clinging to his side once the roll down door had been closed. Clearly, something had happened to cause the raptor to be scared of the dark. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to know what the lab had done.

By the time they arrived at the property, Murder felt tired and irritable, but he managed to temper his irritation with the idea of being able to take a hot shower. Although, he didn’t know if Rowan would let him, given Indo lurking around…And honestly, he wasn’t sure if it’d be a good idea to leave the raptor alone with the soft, stressed noises he’d started to make. Murder’s soothing could only do so much.

So, when the truck engine was turned off, he got up and moved to the roll up door, then pressed himself against the wall. As soon as he heard Rowan unlocking the door, “Get to the side.”

“Think he’s gonna bolt out?”

“Yes.”

“Gotcha.” Rowan moved to the side and shoved the door up. Sure enough, a black and gold blur shot out of the truck. Indo skidded to a halt and shifted to his back legs before spinning around. The stressed noises the raptor made caused Rowan’s chest to unexpectedly ache. He knew those sounds, heard them plenty when Murder had stressed himself at the park.

Slowly, Murder eased towards Indo, making soft purr-coos. He kept his movements calm, relaxed, but confident in order to show Indo that there was nothing to fear in this new place. While the rattley snort the raptor made sound bad, it was only an uncertain noise. Finally, he shifted back to all fours and padded back to Murder who rewarded him with a soft noise as he scratched him under the chin. Quite suddenly, he found himself with an armful of Indo’s head who’d all but sunk down to the ground from the scratching. Murder looked over to Rowan with a frown.

“I still think this is a dumb idea.” Despite his words, Rowan couldn’t help but share Murder’s unhappiness at how Indo acted.


	4. Well, Shit

Murder quietly sighed at how Indo had just seemed to melt at the scratching. It, in a way, reminded him of himself during the first few months at the park and how he’d practically fallen apart at being touched for the first time in nearly a decade. He couldn’t help but wonder how the raptor had been raised; if the fear of darkness was any indication, it hadn’t been anything good. The sudden sound of Rowan shutting the back of the U-Haul caused him to jump in surprise, but Indo reacted a great deal stronger.

He jerked away from Murder, gave Rowan a wide-eyed look then made a singular alarm call, before he spun around and bolted for the woods. Murder half held his arms up in an exasperated gesture before dropping them to his sides and shaking his head as he walked back towards Rowan. “Shower and food. Then go find him.”

“You sure he’ll be alright?” Rowan glanced at Murder as the man passed him on the way to the house, then towards the woods where Indo had bolted. Finally, he followed after him since Murder had clearly made up his mind. “Your room is across the hall from mine. There’s not many clothes because I didn’t go full out. I didn’t know if you were still alive and didn’t want to drop a couple hundred fully decking out the room. Have some unscented shampoo and stuff in the bathroom, too. Kaitlyn recommended it. What do you want for food? Would a sandwich work?”

“Yes.” Briefly, Murder ducked into his room to grab some clothes. It was easy to figure out which one was his: it didn’t have Rowan’s scent as heavily. With clothes in hand, he found the bathroom and blinked a bit at his reflection. He too, had gotten older. Not quite old enough to have grey hairs, but he had a few more wrinkles than what he remembered. His hair still did what it pleased, but that just tended to be him in general.

Snagging a pair of scissors, he trimmed his beard down to something a bit shorter. Over time, the mirrors at the park had gotten broken and he’d only trimmed what he could see. The same went for his hair. Still, he got everything satisfactory and cleaned up his mess. Knowing Rowan, the man would endlessly complain about finding black hair in the sink.

The hot water felt wonderful and he sagged against the shower wall, closing his eyes with a quiet, content, rumble. Honestly, he didn’t want to do anything but stand there, but he also knew the hot water would run out eventually. So, he found the soaps Rowan had mentioned and started getting cleaned up. The only downside was having to duck his head under the shower spray. While being as tall as he was tended to be pretty handy when it came to intimidating people, it was a pain in the ass for day to day life: most things weren’t designed for someone who stood at a solid 6’8”.

Still, he wasn’t bothered enough to worry about it and chose to drain the hot water tank before he, reluctantly, stepped out of the shower to dry off, then dress. He honestly felt tired, despite the nap he had earlier. Then again, yesterday had been practically non-stop and he hoped that he wouldn’t have to deal with anything like that for a third time.

As he walked into the living room, he glanced at the front door and sighed. He really, really didn’t want to be chasing after Indo, but he also didn’t feel comfortable with leaving the raptor alone in an unfamiliar area overnight…Especially when he suspected the critter was afraid of the dark. Moving into the kitchen, he faintly smiled when a sandwich was shoved into his face by Rowan. Taking it, he sat down at the table to eat.

“Everything work for you so far?” Rowan sat down as well and quietly laughed. “I’ve basically been working on the place since I bought it to try and set it up for you. It’s not exactly finished, but…It’s good enough, I think. God. I’m so glad I found you. It was bad enough working on the place because…Sometimes I wondered if you were still alive. Then there was the news that Mount Sibo was gonna blow. I knew it was now or never.”

Murder rumbled out a laugh before gesturing at himself. “Tough fucker.”

“I don’t know about that. I seem to remember you nearly fucking _died_ because you got sick.” Rowan sent him a glare. “I was fucking crying over your stupid ass because I thought you were dying. Hell, even Owen was upset. I’m pretty sure the only reason you’re still alive is because you just refuse to give up.”

He looked down at his half-eaten sandwich and didn’t say anything for a moment, but finally gave a slight shrug before looking up at Rowan again. “Wanted to give up. Was just…Tired, of everything.”

“Yeah, it was kinda before we figured out what you needed. Owen still feels pretty guilty about treating you like an animal. I wouldn’t be surprised if he calls one day and wants to apologize to you.” Rowan grinned slightly. “So, uh…Owen and me are pretty good friends, now. Turns out he was in the Navy and since I did Spec Ops? Started talking about military BS cause you know there’ always the idiot that looks down the barrel of his rifle when it jams and, well. I’ll occasionally meet up with him, have a few beers, and we’ll bitch about whatever needs bitching about.”

“Good.” Murder finished off his sandwich and got up. “Should find Indo.”

“Be careful. I’m just worried he’ll attack you.”

Rather than replying, Murder simply walked out of the house. Dusk had settled and brought with it the sound of nighttime wildlife. He tilted his head, closed his eyes, and listened as he tried to discern the different calls. They were different from what he’d heard nightly for the past twenty years, but some of them tugged at faint memories of a different time. When he’d been human and camped outside in the backyard during the summer. Human…It wasn’t a concept he could understand anymore. To be fragile, delicate, and with weak senses. Some might call him a monster or a freak. Abomination, maybe…But Murder had adapted to the forced change quite well. It only meant shedding many of the things that once made him human.

Opening his eyes, he walked to where Indo had bolted and started following the trail. It wasn’t a hard trail to follow, given that the raptor had not only torn up the ground, but left broken tree limbs and disturbed the leaf fall. Of course, Murder also happened to be an experienced tracker; he would have gone hungry, otherwise.

The trail continued on a ways, Murder wasn’t really sure how far, but he didn’t mind. He enjoyed the idea of exploring his new home and looked forward to exploring it better in the morning. Eventually, he reached a clearing where the ground had been torn up and he initially wondered if Indo had caught some sort of prey. Crouching down, Murder examined the ground intently. There had been a struggle of some sort, definitely, but no blood to indicate a kill. It almost looked like the raptor had fallen and struggled to get up. A blind panic run and he’d tripped? Or had he run until he collapsed from exhaustion? Murder frowned and scanned the ground around the clearing to see if he could pick up the trail again.

Moving over to the trail on the other side of the clearing, he crouched back down and examined the tracks. They didn’t look quite…Right. They seemed…Smaller? A faint sound in the distance caused his head to pop up and him to make a low, raspy, rattley snort. It was in the general direction the tracks had gone and had sounded not-quite-raptor.

Feeling fear wasn’t an emotion that Murder usually felt; usually, he was the one causing the fear. But this…This scared him. Scared him at what he might find. Standing up, he followed the trail at a quick walk. Twenty years ago, he’d been ‘created’. It had been an attempt at building a better dinosaur, he’d been told, one that could follow directions easily. Well, Murder certainly was a better dinosaur, but he only followed directions when he wanted to.

Obviously, science had advanced quite a bit since 2001, especially with what Wu had created at the park…And Wu had always been praised as a genius with genetics by the park staff. The tracks had continued to get smaller and the ground more disturbed as if whatever had made them couldn’t stand and was struggling to move; Murder’s heart pounded at the anxiety of what he might find.

Wu had managed to combine the Indominus rex with Murder’s own DNA, and he grimly wondered how much Indo took after him. He reached some scrubby bushes where the trail ended, and uncharacteristically, he hesitated before he softly cooed as he crouched down to peer inside. His heart skipped more than a few beats at what he saw.

Two orange eyes, ringed with red stared back at him, but they didn’t belong to a dinosaur of any sort. Instead, they belong to a dark-haired, mid-teens boy, one who bore a very close similarity to Murder when he’d been the same age. Murder sucked in a breath and exhaled, half hoping that he actually wasn’t seeing this. “Well…Shit.”

Things had already been complicated enough with the introduction of Indo, but this just…Well, Murder suddenly found himself with the strong desire to have an even stronger drink. He snapped out of his thoughts when Indo made a sound that was the strange combination of a raptor’s stress noise and someone crying. It didn’t take a genius to know that he couldn’t deal with this on his own and needed help. Softly, he cooed and gently tugged Indo out of the bushes, but frowned when the raptor-turned-human all but flopped over, as if he couldn’t figure out where his limbs went or how to move them.

Murder had done much the same when he’d first shifted, and that’s honestly what he thought this was…Which meant that Indo wouldn’t be able to walk the way back to the house. He thought for a moment before tugging his shirt off and manipulating Indo’s arms to put it on him. It was big enough to keep him decent, and Murder was hedging on the bet that it smelling like him would help calm Indo down a bit. After a moment longer, he scooped him up and felt unsurprised when Indo curled up in his arms, drew his arms up against his chest, and buried his face against Murder’s neck.

Softly, Murder rumbled out a few notes of a purr as he started backtracking back to the house. For the moment, he chose to ignore the implications of everything because he could attempt to rationalize everything later. He needed to focus on the priority of getting Indo safe. As a raptor, he would have been able to make quick work of any predator that bothered him. Now? Well, he was more of a danger to himself than anything.

Upon stepping onto the porch, he dimly noted that Rowan had left the porch light on, he immediately kicked the door and hoped that Rowan was still up. When nothing happened, he kicked the door again, this time, harder. Faintly, he heard the man cussing at he stomped towards the door. When he opened it, Murder spoke first. “We have a problem.”

Rowan didn’t like the expression on Murder’s face. It said he was tense, stressed, and upset about something. Then he looked at what Murder held and raised an eyebrow. “Did you fucking steal someone’s kid?”

“I’m serious, Rowan.”

That’s when the boy looked towards him, his face stained with tear tracks, and Rowan froze. The eyes were a big tipoff on just _who_ Murder was holding, but that wasn’t what he stared at. “Jesus Christ, Murder. He looks like he could pass for your kid brother.”

“…Or my kid.” Murder replied drily as he passed Rowan on his way into the house. There, he gently set Indo on the couch and crouched down to softly coo as he touched the side of the boy’s head. Then he looked to Rowan. “Blanket.”

“Uh, yeah. Gimmie a sec.” Rowan briefly disappeared into Murder’s room to grab one, then handed it over. “Should be aired out.”

He absently nodded and wrapped it around Indo, who made a quiet sound of hunger. “He’s hungry.”

“No, shit. I’d be surprise if he wasn’t.” Rowan stood there for a half moment, clearly in a bit of shock. He lightly shook his hands, as if he was attempting to get the gears in his brain working again. Finally, he turned and went into the kitchen. After a few minutes, he returned with a sandwich that he’d cut up into quarters. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I followed the trail he made and found him hiding under a bush like this.” Taking one of the quarters, Murder offered it to Indo who simply tried to take a bite of the food, then made a distressed sound when the sandwich was pulled away. Picking up Indo’s left arm, Murder gently manipulated it so that the boy held the sandwich quarter. After a moment, Indo brought it up to his mouth and took a tentative bite before scarfing the rest of the quarter down. By the third one, he’d mostly figured out the coordination needed to pick the squares up, without Murder needing to help him.

At this point, Murder had sat down by the couch so he could quietly praise Indo when the boy managed to do something right. Finally, Indo laid down so that he could press his face against Murder’s shoulder, which resulted in Murder reaching over to gently pet the side of his head while quietly rumbling to help soothe this young hybrid behind him.

When he was certain the youngster had fallen asleep, Murder carefully eased himself up and slinked into the kitchen. There, Rowan shoved some bottle of alcohol at him. He didn’t hesitate to take the cap off and take a healthy drink as he sat down at the table.

Rowan had anxiously picked the label off the bottle he was working on drinking. Finally, he looked up at Murder. “Jesus Christ, I nearly killed a kid. I just…I thought he was a dinosaur like the Indominus. Not…Not someone like _you_.”

“Didn’t know.” Murder pointed out before putting the bottle on the table so he could scrub his face with his hands. He was someone who was capable of winging it, in most cases. But this…This he didn’t know what to do about. Had Indo stayed a raptor, he would have been able to manage things just fine. He knew raptors quite well…But humans? That was another story. He couldn’t understand them and often felt confused by their body language. They would say one thing, but their body language said another. Finally, he looked up. “What do we do?”

“Fuck if I know…But we’re the only ones that can take care of him. God…If people found out about this…” He didn’t finish his sentence and just shook his head before cupping his hands over his mouth for a moment. “Honestly, you’re the most qualified one on earth to take care of him.”

Murder gave him a sharp look. “How? I don’t understand people. Very confusing. Don’t know anything about kids.”

“He’s like you. I mean…He’s not _exactly_ like you, but he’s similar. He listens, at least. It’s just…” Rowan sighed and looked at his bottle. “I see so much of you in him. God, he looks so much like you.”

“…Attached already?” He asked, drily.

“No…I…” Rowan looked away for a moment, then focused on a very interesting spot on the floor before looking back to Murder. “Yes. I’m a big softy for animals and…He’s terrified and…I don’t know. God! This has been a hell of a day.”

Murder rumbled out a soft laugh. “Yes. We raise him?”

“We don’t have a choice. There’s so many people out there that’d love to cut him open…Shit, cut _you_ open. Owen called me after you left and we talked about Indo a bit. He said they tried to train him to be a weapon. Probably a lot of nasty stuff went on…But you know a lot of raptor stuff, and I picked up on a lot of stuff when I was ‘caring’ for you at the park. I figure he’ll be a bit different, but it’s a good starting point, I guess.”

“Scared of the dark.” He noted.

Leaning over, Rowan grabbed a piece of paper and wrote something down. “I was going to go into town tomorrow, anyway, to drop off the truck and pick up some things for you. I can grab some stuff for him, too. Clothes, I guess. I can grab a nightlight, too. Y’know. He needs a better name than ‘Indo’.”

Picking up the bottle again, Murder took a drink and considered for a moment, but glanced towards the living room at a slight noise; the boy had simply rolled over in his sleep. “Indiana Jones. Indy.”

“…You fucking nerd…But, it’s not bad. Indy it is.”


	5. Day One

Murder frowned at the bottle of alcohol Rowan had given him. He didn’t recognize the brand, just knew that it burned a bit on the way down. Not unpleasantly so, however. Tiredly, he watched Rowan get up and dig around in the fridge. Before he knew it, the other man put a bowl of food in front of him and dragged his chair over to sit near him. Murder gave him a questioning look.

“It’s egg salad. Figure with how busy everything’s been you haven’t gotten to eat enough.” Rowan picked up the pen he’d written with earlier and fiddled with it a bit. “How’d you do on the island, by yourself?”

He ignored the critical look Rowan gave his back, knowing the man was searching for any new scars that might suggest he’d harmed himself out of stress. “Wasn’t alone. Blue. We argued, but hunted together. We…Tolerated each other.”

“That’s good.” Rowan had gotten himself some ice cream, as well, and poked at it a bit before looking to Murder and quietly speaking. “Why’d you run? After everything.”

For several moments, Murder was silent as he tried to piece together the right words. While capable of speaking in full sentences when needed, he preferred to speak as clipped as possible since it took a fair amount of effort otherwise. He’d recovered some of his speech skills during the time at the park, but not all of them. In this instance, he wanted to convey his reasoning as clearly as possible. “I was scared. I knew the world had changed. And…”

Rowan pushed his bowl to the side so he could rest his elbow on the table, allowing him to half lean over so that he could better focus on Murder. He didn’t prompt the other man to say anything, and instead waited for him to finish picking his words.

“I didn’t think I’d survive. So, I ran.” Murder looked down at his food and stirred it a bit before shoveling some into his mouth.

“Yeah, okay. I can understand that.” He pulled his bowl of ice cream back. “Sorry. I was just…Hurt, I guess, that you took off.”

“Always figured you’d come back.”

“Really?” He looked over to Murder who grinned, showing canines that were a hair too sharp.

“Too attached to me.”

Rowan couldn’t help but snort at that. “Yeah, well, you wouldn’t be wrong. How are you doing?”

Murder shrugged as he continued eating. “Tired.”

“No, I mean how are you handling everything?” At the park, Murder had been prone to stressing easily which almost always prompted self-destructive behavior and Rowan had always been at the forefront of keeping the hybrid emotionally stable. He really didn’t know if it had to do with the years of isolation, being part raptor, or if Murder had always been that way. Although, given that Owen had mentioned his girls easily stressing at times, Rowan suspected that it was the raptor aspect.

Rather than replying, Murder simply continued eating. However, movement out of the corner of his eye caused him to look over at Rowan who’d raised his hand to carefully touch his head. He blinked a few times and then felt himself starting to sag over when Rowan started scratching his head. Frankly, he found it somewhat embarrassing, but he couldn’t deny that it felt good. Suddenly, the other man stopped and grabbed his arm to keep him from falling in the floor. Murder spasmed slightly, but rebalanced himself, then glared slightly at Rowan who had a shit eating grin. The grin quickly sobered up, however.

“Look, I’m worried about you. Stressful shit happened, and you started ripping into your shoulders.” Rowan gave a pointed glance at the mess of scars that covered Murder’s shoulders; they were a combination of claw and teeth marks. “And this has been beyond stressful.”

Murder made an exasperated sound. “No. Was more than stress. I was…” He struggled to come up with the right word. It sat there, just out of his grasp. The word that came to mind fit, but wasn’t the right one and he knew it. “Sad. Bored. Had no control of anything. Too much.”

“I gotcha.” While the clipped speech made it hard to understand Murder, Rowan still got the gist of things. However, when Murder started lightly tugging on his hair, he slid his bowl office cream over as a means of distracting him. “Look, it’s okay. I get it, and you don’t have to explain anymore…You don’t have to worry about the park, either. Pretty sure it’s destroyed, now.”

Sighing, Murder let go of his hair and let his hand drop to the table before he looked over to Rowan. “Wasn’t always like this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Stressing…The…” He vaguely gestured at his shoulders. “Never did that before the Park.”

Rowan frowned and grabbed Murder’s empty food bowl to put it into the sink. “Do you think being alone or being at the Park did it?”

“Park, I think. Don’t exactly regret it. Better than starving to death.”

“Owen kinda thought it was the Park, too.” He sat back down. “Entirely serious when I say that he’s going to want to apologize to you.”

Murder shrugged as he started in on the ice cream. “Don’t care.”

“Uh…What do you mean you don’t care?”

“He didn’t know. He treated me different when he did know. Tried to make things better. Why be angry?” Since most of the ice cream had melted, Murder simply drank it from the bowl.

“…Huh. He figured you’d be pissed at him, considering the ACU guys.”

This made Murder sigh and look down at the bowl before quietly speaking. “No. Other reasons.”

Despite his curiosity, Rowan knew he was treading on sensitive territory. “Do you want to tell me why?”

“You’re Pack. They hurt you, but…” Murder fiddled with the spoon, ignoring how the leftover ice cream made his fingers sticky. “Don’t like soldiers. They killed him.”

“…The other hybrid?”

Murder’s attention immediately shifted to Rowan. “Yes. Michael. How’d you know?”

“When I took the job for InGen to help catch you, they kinda made noises about there being another hybrid that tagged along with you. I didn’t pay much attention because I was too busy trying to comprehend what I was being sent after. A few months after the Park shit went down, InGen got into a massive amount of legal trouble and then…” Rowan sighed. “And then someone found and released the Black Project Files. God, Murder. InGen was up to some fucked up shit and the guy that dealt with your stuff?”

“Michael was his son.”

“…Fucking what?” He stared at Murder who solemnly nodded. “Christ, that’s even worse.”

“Probably better he died.” Murder paused and frowned. “Is it bad I think that?”

“I guess it depends on why you think that.”

“Wasn’t like me. Couldn’t change. Only half changed.” He reached out and gently touched the side of Rowan’s face, then trailed his fingers down the side of his neck “Raptor skin. Had claws. Didn’t look human.”

“The ACU goons would have killed him…Or sent him off to be…” Rowan shook his head. “No, it’s not bad that you think that. How…Did he die?”

Murder went silent, unsure if he wanted to tell Rowan due to how painful the memories were. Finally, he reached out and poked the other man in the stomach. “Shot. Couldn’t stop the bleeding. Made it home, but…He’s still there. I left.”

“Christ…I’m sorry.” He lightly touched Murder’s shoulder, but felt uncertain on what to say or if he should even say anything. It wasn’t easy to tell what the other man might need, most of the time. Just like he couldn’t tell if he was upset or just tired. “I…Still hungry?”

“No. Tired.”

“Well, you know where your room is.” He tilted his head curiously when Murder shook his head. “Where are you going to sleep, then?”

“Chair.” Murder pointed at the living room. “In case he wakes up.”

“Ah, yeah. That’s a pretty good point. Do…You want me to leave the light over the sink on?”

“Yes.” Pushing himself up to his feet, Murder tiredly lumbered into the living room where he briefly checked on Indy before settling in the recliner. Considering the size of it, he suspected that it had specifically been bought for him. Sleepily, he watched Rowan slip off to his room before he rolled over to put his back to the kitchen light.

When Rowan got up the next morning, he couldn’t help but smile. Murder was asleep, on his back, with his arm tossed over his eyes. Next to him, still wrapped up in the blanket was Indy who’d taken to using Murder’s chest as a pillow. Still, Rowan felt concerned at how gaunt the boy looked. His hair looked dull, suggesting that maybe, he hadn’t been getting the right nutrition for some time.

With this thought in mind, he went into the kitchen and started pulling out food for breakfast. The big issue was going to be cooking enough. Rowan was used to just cooking for himself and occasionally Owen when the man stopped by for a visit. Now, he had to also cook for Murder, who could eat enough to feed two people, and Indy…Who probably just needed as much food as he wanted. Finally, Rowan just settled on the idea of cooking a bunch of food and shoving any leftovers in the fridge. Knowing Murder, the guy would probably eat what was left for lunch and still demand more.

Rowan did not look forward to the prospect of Murder wrecking the toilet a few times a week.

Still, he was happy with the idea of Murder being alive, and with this thought in mind, set to work making a breakfast capable of feeding several more people than what currently resided in the house. A quiet _chirp_ , not quite raptor but not entirely human, came from the living room. Looking over, Rowan spotted a still sleepy, but curious Indy watching him. After a moment, the boy sniffed the air, clearly woken up by the smell of food. Beneath the sound of cooking food, Rowan heard the low rumble of Murder waking up.

Slowly, he edged into the living room in hopes that he wouldn’t startle Indy who kept a hawklike gaze on him. Next to him, Murder opened an eye before yawning. He opened the other when Indy spat out a hiss at Rowan. Rolling his eyes, he wrapped an arm around the boy and dragged him back down against his side, ignoring the startled squawk. “Food…Bacon? Not cooked.”

“You sure that’s…” Rowan trailed off at the look he was given. “Right. Raptor. As long as he doesn’t bite me…”

“He’s scared of you. Only trusts me. Needs to learn you’re safe.”

This caused Rowan to glance away and wonder how much English Indy knew, or if he was just plain ignorant of everything having to do with being human. “Yeah, I can get him a few slices. Do you want some or are you going to wait for breakfast?”

“I’ll wait.”

He nodded and returned to the kitchen. There, he checked over everything that was cooking before grabbing a couple bacon slices. Walking back to the living room, he carefully eased over to the recliner and tried to ignore how Indy warily watched him. Then, he held out the bacon so it dangled within the boy’s reach. Murder made a soft, encouraging noise, prompting Indy to carefully reach out. His first few attempts to grab the bacon missed, but when he finally did, he yanked the bacon back and immediately shoved it all in his mouth.

Rowan gave Murder a concerned look. “His depth perception is off.”

“Normal.” Murder yawned again. “Changes between forms. Kept falling over when I first changed. Bad balance, too.”

“Alright. Good to know. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since he’s basically having to learn How To Human.” He quietly snorted at Murder ruffling Indy’s hair. “You were giving me shit last night about already being attached and look at you. You’re basically acting like he’s your kid.”

“Might as well be.” Finally, Murder eased himself out of the chair and sighed when Indy made a sharp alarm bark. “…Fuck’s sake.”

Bemused, Rowan watched Murder pick up the kid and wander into the bathroom. Life had suddenly gotten very interesting. Going back into the kitchen, he finished up on breakfast, and by the time the other two had returned, he’d gotten all the plates dished up. “Are you going to carry him everywhere?”

“No.” Murder replied as he set Indy down in a chair and sat down next to him. “Can’t stand up on his own. Keeps trying to go on all fours or falling over. Needs to learn to walk on two.”

“I…Okay, yeah. That makes sense.”

Indy stared at the food on his plate before reaching out to grab it with his hand, only to be stopped by Murder. Immediately, he snarled and lashed out with his other hand to ‘claw’ at Murder’s face. Unimpressed, Murder caught the boy’s other hand. With both limbs firmly in his grasp, he leaned down so that his face was right in Indy’s and growled.

Rowan watched all this with a bland expression on his face before picking up his cup of coffee and going over to the coffee maker to pour some Irish Cream into his cup. Let the two raptors argue over breakfast, he wasn’t going to get involved. Behind him, Indy yelped when Murder snapped his jaws, which was followed by the boy quietly warbling.

When he returned to the table, Indy leaned against Murder’s side while he was shown how to use a fork. Rowan noted how some of the food had been cut up and suspected that Murder didn’t trust the boy with any sort of knives. “Wanna tell me what that was about?”

“Like me. Doesn’t like food touched. Needs to learn to use a fork.” This was followed by Murder immediately purr-cooing when Indy managed to get a forkful of food in his mouth without stabbing himself in the eye. “Fast learner, at least.”

“Do you think we’re going to have to teach him _everything_?” Rowan asked, but then sighed at the nod Murder gave him. “Which means he’s insanely behind compared to how he looks. I really wonder if Wu knew about this.”

Murder could only shrug as he shifted his attention to his own food, but kept an eye on Indy. While the boy ate slowly initially, he was steadily getting better with manipulating the fork and as he got better with the fork, he started eating faster.

“Think he can talk?”

“Maybe? Fairly good with raptor. Might know some English, but maybe not how to speak it. Can try to teach him.” Frowning a bit, he pulled the glass of water over to Indy and carefully cupped the boy’s hand around the glass, then guided it to his mouth. After realizing what was in the glass, Indy eagerly drank. “Lots of work.”

“No kidding. He doesn’t know anything about being a human. I think we need to approach this from two different angles. Since he trusts you the most, you can work on teaching him things. I’ll work on keeping him fed since he’s pretty thin. I figure that I’ll be able to earn his trust that way, kinda like I did with you. Sound good?”

Murder nodded. “Good idea.”

Finally, Indy let his fork drop onto the table with a clatter, then looked around for a moment before looking up at Murder and chirping. Softly, the two went back and forth for a moment before Murder finally stood up, scooped Indy up, then walked to the living room where he put him in the recliner again. There, he found the remote and turned on the tv, ignoring the soft warning noise that the boy made at the initial burst of sound. It took him a moment to find some cartoons, but as soon as Indy saw the brightly colored characters, he seemed to be entranced by it. Quietly laughing to himself, Murder returned to the kitchen to finish eating.

“Electronic babysitter, huh?”

“Maybe? Keeps him focused on something. Lets me eat. Might learn some English.” Quietly, Murder sighed as he watched Indy for a moment. “Won’t get to hunt or explore.”

“I can still get you some fresh meat. There’s a local butcher that I sometimes buy from and I made noises about getting some dogs and wanting to put them on a raw diet. So, we kinda talked about things and I can probably get some from him. Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea anyway, just so we have a food we can fall back on incase Indy doesn’t like something.” Rowan got up to put his dishes away. “I’m going to leave the food out for you. When you’re done eating, there’s some tubberware containers over in that cabinet. Just pop the food in there and throw it in the fridge.”

“Good idea. Also good for snacks. Going to need a lot of food.”

“No kidding. I think he’s in worse shape than you were.” Rowan scowled. “Even if they didn’t know he could change, there’s no reason for them not to have been feeding him. Honestly, makes me want to kill every one of them and…I can’t really blame him for going ape shit on everyone. You said he was scared, but he was probably also starving.”

Murder nodded. “Food’s food.”

“Yeah. Not going to lose any sleep over those bastards.” Rowan glanced around the kitchen before picking up the shopping list he’d started last night. “Alright. I’m gonna head into town. That cheapy phone is yours until I can add a second phone onto my plan. If you need me, or think of something you want me to pick up, give me a call.”

“Alright.” Once Rowan left, Murder finished eating and put up the food before heading into his room to fully check things out. It was fairly bare, but had all the essentials. Honestly, the idea of sleeping in a house after so many years seemed…Weird. Admittedly, not having to deal with rain, hail, or anything like that _and_ having things temperature controlled didn’t sound too bad. He was pulled out of his thoughts at the sound of Indy making a noise.

Returning to the living room, he found the boy standing up precariously, his legs spread wide in an attempt to keep his balance…Much like a freshly born colt who was trying not to fall on his face. Most of the problem was that Indy was trying to stand on his toes, essentially, while also mimicking a raptor posture.

Murder walked over to him and put a hand on his chest to keep him from pitching forward, then tried to get him into a more human standing position. Indy had to learn that his center of gravity was different. After a bit of work, he managed to get him standing upright and flat footed. Indy stood there for a moment, still wobbly, but no longer in danger of falling over. Looking up, he rapidly let loose a deluge of clicks and chirps.

He understood.


	6. The Modern World

The time away from the house gave Rowan a chance to mentally step back and examine what had happened in the past 48 hours. While he’d expected it to be a bit bumpy, with how he was essentially reintroducing Murder to society, he hadn’t expected Indy. Rowan would be quick to admit that he didn’t mind the idea of essentially rescuing the boy, but the fact that they _had_ seriously complicated things more than what he’d anticipated. He’d planned on calling Kaitlyn out in order for the paleovet to give Murder a physical the moment they’d gotten home. While the hybrid seemed to be in good shape, Rowan just wanted the peace of mind.

Now, with Indy in the picture, Kaitlyn _really_ needed to come out because the boy’s general state worried Rowan. The main issue with this? He didn’t know how Indy would react and honestly didn’t want to stress him anymore than he already had been. Still…It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, but it was an idea he wanted to pass by Murder, first. The man had essentially adopted Indy from the moment he’d seen him…Probably a good thing, too. Murder was probably the most experienced person on the planet when it came to hybrids. As unsure as the man might be about the idea, he was likely the best possible person.

When Rowan got back to the house and slammed the truck door shut, he blinked a few times at the sharp alarm bark that came from the backyard. Curious, he walked around to the back of the house and paused. Indy stood there, still a bit unbalanced, with Murder a few feet away. After a moment, the boy took two wobbly steps towards Murder who leaned forward to give him some sort of food. “Are you seriously giving him food as a reward?”

“It works.” Murder noted. “Needs to learn to walk. He wants food. I give him food when he walks.”

“…Huh. Well, he looks like he’s doing alright. I was thinking on the drive back…You still need to get looked over by Kaitlyn and he _definitely_ needs to see Kaitlyn. Even if she doesn’t do an exam, maybe she can give us an idea of things he can eat to help with his weight. ‘Cause…” Rowan gestured at Indy. “He looks absolutely terrible.”

Murder looked down at Indy who’d finally reached him and was grabbing at the bag of deli meat he had. Quietly sighing, he pulled out a slice and handed it over to the boy who quickly snatched it from him, then gobbled it down. “Fine. But…Don’t tell her what he is.”

“I mean, she’s going to figure out pretty quick that something’s fucky, Murder. It’s obvious that he’s not human.”

“No. Say he’s raptor. Just not what kind.” Murder took a few steps back and ignored Indy’s huff of annoyance as he started slowly walking towards him again. The only way the boy would learn to walk was by doing.

“…So, basically telling her the truth, but not the entire truth?” Rowan crossed his arms and watched Indy. While able to walk, he still shuffled his feet a bit, as if afraid to fully lift them off the ground.

“Exactly. Velociraptor, Utahraptor, Indoraptor. All raptors.”

“So, you’re giving the okay for me to call her and ask her to come out?”

“Yes.” When Indy reached him again, Murder gave him another slice of meat before moving away again. This time, quite few feet away. He frowned at the quiet distressed noise, but simply cooed in encouragement. “It was hard…Learning to move.”

“When you first changed?” He looked to Murder who nodded.

“Was smaller…Younger…But had to learn balance, I was bigger than before and had to learn that. He has some issues, but he’s smaller than he was.” He shrugged slightly. “Probably feels weak. Vulnerable. Wants safety.”

“Jesus, he’s basically like a little kid right now. Do you think that’s what sort of intelligence he has?”

“No. He’s smart. Don’t think he knows English, but responds to raptor. Show him, he understands. Learned how to stand quickly. Walking is harder…More balance needed.” Once more, he gave Indy a slice of meat when the boy reached him. “Might take a few days to walk properly.”

“Honestly? I can see him improving with what he’s been doing, already…I, uh, hate to break up the teaching session, but can you help me get the groceries and meat in? I got a lot and otherwise it’s gonna take me a lot of trips.”

Murder nodded and gave Indy another slice of meat before walking to Rowan. Behind him, Indy made an unhappy noise at how he’d moved away and started following after him. He paused and watched the two of them walk to the truck to start grabbing bags, but didn’t approach any closer.

“Will he be alright by himself while we’re unloading the truck?”

“Yes. Be good for him to explore and be outside. Too pale. Needs sunlight.” Much like Rowan, Murder was quite unhappy at Indy’s state. “Enjoy napping in the sun.”

“Man…It just boggles my mind at how much he’s missed. Oh, hey. If those are his clothes, just leave them in the living room. I’ll grab them in a bit and get them washed.”

With all the food brought in, Murder dug into the bags of meat from the butcher and found a nice cut of rump. Grabbing a knife, he sliced off a chunk off it and walked back outside. There, he stopped on the porch, made a call to get Indy’s attention. It was the call he’d already picked as Indy’s ‘raptor name’ and the boy seemed to recognize it as being his call. Then, he held out the meat, and spoke. “Indy.”

Indy tilted his head but after a moment walked towards Murder. However, upon reaching the two stairs, he stopped and eyed them before looking back to Murder. Again, Murder showed him the meat and spoke. “Indy.”

Finally, Indy started climbing the stairs. The moment he began pitching forward, Murder grabbed his arm to balance him. Once he made it onto the porch, he glanced behind him, then to Murder, and made a delighted chirp. Murder smiled slightly and made Indy’s call, repeated his human name, then held out the meat. Immediately, Indy grabbed it and started hungrily eating it.

“Teaching him his name?” Rowan spoke from the doorway.

“He knows raptor name. I’ll teach later. Needs to know human name…Even if he can’t talk.” Once Indy finished eating, Murder shooed him into the house, then the bathroom to show him how to wash his hands. Mostly because he knew Rowan would have a fit over having bloody handprints everywhere.

With Indy cleaned up, Murder meandered back into the living room and turned on the tv, then watched as the youngster slowly walked over to the couch, laid down, and curled up. Shaking his head, he went into the kitchen where Rowan had started to put things up. Some of the brands on the boxes he recognized, but most of them he didn’t.

Rowan shoved a few boxes into the cabinet and then looked over to Murder with a grin. “Hey. I got you something while I was at the store. You’re gonna need to get caught up on everything, so…” He pointed at a box on the table. “I got you a laptop. It’s kinda low end, but it’ll work for most general stuff.”

“Laptops are shit.” Murder noted, but went to the table to examine the box. He vaguely recognized the brand, Dell, but not much else about it. He looked over at the annoyed sound Rowan made as the man walked over.

“It’s not shit. I mean, yeah, it’s low end, but it’s got good specs for the price.” He turned over the box and pointed them out. “And when was the last time you messed with a laptop? Seriously.”

Murder didn’t really understand the specs and so couldn’t comment on if they were good or bad. Finally, he shrugged at Rowan’s question. “Maybe ’98 or ’99? Was slow and laggy.”

“That’s why. It’s been twenty years, Murder. You remember my tablet at the park? This laptop is more powerful. It’s better.” Rowan sighed. “Just give it a try, please? A lot has changed since you got onto Sorna.”

Finally, Murder made a quiet grumble and started opening the box. He grimaced at the squeaking noise the styrofoam made as he pulled it out of the box; the sound it made caused him to want to twitch. Despite the annoying noise, he couldn’t deny that he felt curious about the laptop. After a few moments, he eyed the unpacked laptop and charger before picking it all up and heading into the living room. It took him a moment to find an outlet, but he soon settled in the recliner, cross legged while he waited for the laptop to boot.

The colorful screen that greeted him caused him to tilt his head slightly while he focused on the text. Windows 10? That really didn’t mean much to him, but he assumed it to be the operating system. He could recall Windows 95 and Windows ME. Softly, he snorted at the memory of Windows 95 and its frequent crashes then muttered, “Fucking shit.”

Moving through the different settings screens took him longer than he cared to admit. It had been a long, long time since he’d needed to read and he had to think over some of the words to remember what they meant. Finally, he reached a screen and had no idea what it was asking. He furrowed his brows and frowned.

Rowan wandered in from the kitchen with a bowl of egg salad in his hand. Since it looked like Murder was still in the start up setup, he was curious on what was taking him so long. It shouldn’t be _that_ hard. “What’s up?”

Murder hesitated, unsure if this was something new or if he’d simply forgotten. “What’s ‘wifi’ mean?”

“You don’t know what wifi is?” Rowan felt baffled. “It’s how you connect to the internet. How’d you connect to the internet?”

“…Dial up.”

“Jesus Christ. Basically no one uses dial up anymore.” He crouched down next to Murder’s chair. “Okay. So. Click that right there. That’s the router. It basically lets a bunch of people online at a time. Here, lemme type in the password for you. And there you go. Should have internet now.”

“No noise?” Murder glanced over to Rowan.

“Nope! It’s…” He trailed off, unsure of how to explain. “Okay. You know how you can get the tv channels through the air? Wifi basically works the same way. And the neat thing is that as long as the router is on and the internet isn’t acting up? You’ll have internet as soon as you turn on the laptop.”

Curiously, Murder clicked through the last few settings screens and finally found himself at the desktop. After a moment of clicking on random things, he finally opened the browser, but looked over at Rowan who made a ‘gimmie’ motion with his hand. “What?”

“There’s a bunch of different browsers now and ads are basically nasty, virus filled things that will basically give your laptop e-aids or whatever. I wanna put some stuff on it that’ll help you out.”

“No. Show me.” He gave Rowan an unimpressed look at the huff the other man made. Still, with Rowan’s guidance, he not only managed to get the new browser installed, but also several essential addons. To top things off, he created a new e-mail at Rowan’s insistence.

“I figure I can e-mail you things that you might find neat.” Rowan noted, but looked up at the soft noise Indy made. Then, he looked to Murder. “Translation?”

“He’s hungry.”

“So…That’s a hungry noise?” When Murder confirmed, Rowan nodded. “Alright. What about you? Hungry?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Uh…I mostly have a lot of leftovers. How about I shove that at you two and I’ll work on making a nice stew for dinner?” He offered Murder a slight smile. “Figure you can taste test since you and Indy probably have the same tastes.”

“That’s fine.” Then, Murder nodded. “I like stew.”

“Sweet. Potatoes, carrots, green beans, onions, and celery…Plus meat, of course. Sound good?”

Murder nodded again. “Very. Keep raw meat out in case he doesn’t like stew?”

“Yeah. Good idea.” Rowan lightly squeezed Murder’s arm after a moment of hesitation. “If you have any questions about the computer, lemme know, alright? I’m…Not always going to realize that you don’t know something because it’s just really, really hard for me to grasp that you were on Sorna for so long. Or…If there’s something you don’t like, I want to know about it. I’ve had three years to think things over and I’ve also planned things out with Owen and Kaitlyn. I just…I want to do things right for you. And I guess by that extension, Indy. So, just let me know if you need something.”

“I will.”

“I’m serious Murder.” Rowan sighed and looked down. “Once I got to know you? It killed a part of me, every day, to see you just slowly…Fade away. And seeing how vibrant and happier you were in the bigger exhibit just told me how _wrong_ it was for you to be on display like that. I want you to be happy, okay?”

“I’m fine, Rowan.”

He gave Murder a slight glare. “Oh, shut up. I’ve had three years to think over things. Lemme ramble.”

Murder leaned over with a faint smile. “Ramble when I have food.”

“…Asshole.” He grumped, but got up and went into the kitchen. Despite his insult, he knew Murder was right: Indy needed to be fed. The behemoth of a man in the recliner was more than capable of getting his own food, but Indy? Indy couldn’t. After a few minutes, he returned with a bowl and a plastic container. In the bowl was scrambled eggs and hash browns; he gave this to Murder. The plastic container also had scrambled eggs, but also the leftover bacon. This one he held out to Indy. “Indy.”

Indy raised his head a bit, curiously, to look into the container. Then he glanced at Rowan before looking to Murder who ignored him in favor of eating. Finally, Indy hesitantly took the container, then the offered fork. After a moment, he sat up and watched Murder a moment before mimicking how he ate.

“Jesus. You’re right: he _is_ smart.” Rowan sat down on the arm of the recliner so he could watch Indy eat. “This morning he barely knew how to use a fork, now look at him. I mean, he’s still kinda having some trouble, but look at him. I really wonder if he’ll be talking in a few days.”

“Don’t know. Trying to use English instead of raptor.” Murder considered something for a moment. “Indy.”

When Indy looked up, Murder immediately leaned forward to offer him a bit of hash brown. After he’d taken it, Murder settled back and gave Rowan a look. “Very smart.”

“Man…” Rowan didn’t get to finish his thought thanks to his phone ringing. “Shit, I bet that’s Kaitlyn. I left her a voice mail, earlier.”

Getting up, he grabbed his phone off the bar countertop. “Hey, Kaitlyn. How’s it going? I’m doing great, thanks. Yeah, he’s settling in pretty well. I was wondering if you could swing by and give him a look over, just to make sure he’s healthy. No, he looks great, but I want to make sure and...It’s just…We…Found another…Like him. Yeah. Really thin and scared. He pays attention to Murder, but I’m just wanting you to look at him, too. Even if you can’t get near him, maybe you can give some ideas on what I can feed him to help him gain weight. No, he’s eating okay. I’m honestly just worried because he’s a kid.”

He pulled the phone away from his ear at the volley of angry curses from Kaitlyn. Once she finished, “Trust me, I feel the same way. Oh, the Indoraptor? He’s lurking around, still. Hangs off by himself in the woods. I didn’t tell Owen about the kid because I figured it was bad enough to tell him that Murder decided to frickin’ adopt a raptor. Besides, I thought Owen would be wanting to race up here to check on him and…Felt the kid had gone through enough trauma, y’know? This weekend would be great. Yeah, there’s a nice motel you can stay at. Alright. Yeah. Text me the info. Alright, bye.”

When he hung up, Rowan sighed. “I really don’t like hiding the truth from her, _or_ Owen. They’re going to figure out eventually.”

“I know. Worried about how they’ll treat him, otherwise.” Leaning forward, Murder gently offered his bowl of food to Indy, then scraped what he hadn’t eaten into the plastic container at the interested noise he received. With the container refilled, the boy resumed eating.

“Yeah, I get it. They won’t be too happy with me lying to them, but…” He trailed off for a moment to watch Indy. “I think in the long run of things, they’ll understand…Anyway…Since you gave your food to him, do you want the last of the egg salad?”

Looking to Rowan, he nodded. “Yes. Just want him to get plenty of food.”

“I totally get’cha.” Taking Murder’s bowl, he briefly ducked into the kitchen to fill it up. Returning to the other man, he handed it back. “How’s the computer working for you?”

“I like it.”

“Not so shit, huh?” Rowan grinned, and only grinned broader when Murder glanced away.

“No, not shit.” Then he quietly sighed. “Most websites are gone, or something else.”

“Yeah…It’s been nearly twenty years. It happens unfortunately.”

Suddenly, Murder rumbled out a laugh as he remembered something. “Shit. My Neopets are probably fucking dead.”

“What the actual fuck is a ‘Neopet’?” Rowan asked, and his confusion only got worse at the vaguely surprised look Murder gave him. “Seriously. I’ve never heard of that.”

Grabbing the laptop, Murder quickly typed in the website address, then made a face at the site being wildly different than what he remembered. Softly, he muttered ‘what the fuck’ under his breath as he tried to find one of his old Neopets. Finally, he showed Rowan. “Wasn’t as ugly back then.”

“Okaaaaaaay…And the point of this website was what?”

“Was a game. Don’t remember the password.” Murder sighed. “Oh, well. Looks like shit, anyway.”

“…Huh. Alrighty then. So…I think I know a website you might like. It’s called ‘Youtube’…”


	7. Kaitlyn

Murder knew that he’d missed out on a number of things, but he just hadn’t realized _how much_ he’d missed out on. Numerous movie franchises, major world events, a ton of different video games, lots of music, technology in general and…Honestly, it felt overwhelming a times. He had close to twenty years of pop culture to catch up on and he didn’t know where to start. Rowan helped, at least, by trying to point out things he thought Murder might like. He still felt like he was floundering, most of the time, however.

Of course, Murder also had frequent distractions in the form of Indy. The boy was, as Rowan put it, ‘learning How To Human’. This meant Murder got the job of not only teaching him what the bathroom was about, but also basic personal hygiene, how to dress himself, and how to use the shower. Meaning Murder currently leaned against the bathroom doorframe, supervising while Indy washed his hands after using the toilet.

Curiously, Indy sniffed of the soap. While Murder found it fragrant, it wasn’t so bad that it bothered his nose. In fact, it smelled pretty good which was a bit of a rarity when it came to scented soaps. It smelled like some sort of apple spice stuff and honestly was a bit mouthwatering. Evidently, Indy thought the same and held the container of liquid soap up to his mouth, clearly considering the idea of eating it. Murder’s initial thought was to stop him, but figured that Indy would try eating it at some other point in time. So, he figured it’d be best for him to learn the hard way.

Indy squirted the soap into his mouth and his face went through a variety of expressions. Confusion and disgust, primarily. A scant four seconds later, he spat out the soap then made a singular alarm shriek before scrambling past Murder, into the living room, and then diving headfirst into a pillow on the couch. There, he started rubbing his face all over the pillow while making _very_ unhappy noises.

Baffled, Rowan stepped out of the kitchen, phone in hand. He stared at Indy for a moment and then noted Murder’s amused expression. “What happened?”

“Tried to eat the soap.” Murder replied as he moved past Rowan to fetch Indy something to drink.

“And you let him?”

“…Have to learn somehow.” Murder wasn’t one to show a lot of facial expressions, but in this instance, he had a faint smirk. “Won’t do it again, I think.”

Rowan attempted to keep a straight face at both Murder’s vague, shit eating smirk and story of what had happened. Finally, he looked away and quietly laughed. “You’re a fucking asshole, Murder…But you’re probably right.”

With a juice pouch in hand, Murder walked to the couch and lightly nudge Indy before holding the drink out. Immediately, it was snatched out of his hand and sucked down; Indy’s unhappy noises quieted down. Looking back to Rowan, Murder sighed. “Thinks everything that smells good is food. Will need to watch him.”

“Ah, shit, yeah. Don’t want him to eat anything toxic.” However, Rowan held up his phone. “We’ve got a bit of a problem. Kaitlyn told Owen about Indy and…Owen’s kinda pissed at me for not bringing it up to him when he called me the other day.”

“Tell him I said not to.”

“Already did. Just so we have our stories straight, I told him you didn’t want me to say anything because of how we found Indy. Said that the kid’s severely underweight and is scared of people. I…Basically went with the abuse angle.” He looked towards Indy and how the boy had his head tilted while he watched some cartoon. “Sadly, I don’t think it’s far from the truth.”

Murder quietly nodded and took the empty juice pouch from Indy. “Clings to me at night, whimpers in his sleep. They did shitty things to him.”

“Does the nightlight help any?” Rowan leaned against the wall as he watched Murder move around. It’d been two days since they arrived at the house, and Murder had spent most of it getting Indy settled in. What had originally been Murder’s room had turned into a room for him _and_ Indy…Mostly because otherwise, Indy would throw a massive fit; he was ten times worse about being alone than Murder had ever been.

“A bit. Think he’s not used to people.” Murder threw away the juice pouch and shifted his attention to the notion of getting himself some food. “Wants lots of touching.”

“Like you did at the park?” In hindsight, Murder had shown all the signs of being touch starved. The eager behavior at seeing him in the morning, the dislike of him leaving, and even the insistence of snuggling up to him. Rowan still regretted not picking up on it, but he’d had three years to review his mistakes and he was determined not to make them again.

“Yes.” Murder looked down at the container in his hands before he pulled the lid off of it. “He’s scared and confused. Wants to be reassured. Won’t fall asleep unless he’s up against my chest and I hold him. He’ll cry otherwise.”

Rowan sighed. “I wish I knew what they did to him so I’d have a better idea of how to help him, but at the same time…I don’t want to know because I _know_ it’ll piss me off. He seems to be doing better, though? He didn’t growl at me when I put breakfast in front of him today.”

With the food heated, Murder grabbed a fork and started eating. “Is slowly learning. Doesn’t like toothpaste, though. Might be too strong?”

“Maybe. I can see about getting some toothpaste that’s for kids…He might like the flavor better. How’s he doing with everything else?”

“Fine.” Murder suddenly snorted loudly. “Toilet trained; I think. Only gets out of the shower when the water goes cold. So much to teach him.”

“Well, I for one, thing you’re being a great dad.”  Rowan cackled and caught the hand towel that Murder threw at him. “I’m being serious, man. You’re probably the most qualified person in the world to raise him. I mean, yeah, you two are a bit different, but you’re both hybrids. You’ve…Spent a solid chunk of your life as one, so you have a good idea of the issues he’s having and is going to have. Yeah, I know how old you were when you got to Sorna. Owen told me. He told me a lot of things.”

This caused Murder to grumble quietly. “Never thought about kids. Figured I’d die on Sorna. Thought I’d die on Nublar. But…You’re right. I do know and he trusts me.”

“Hey, there you go. Trust is half the battle.” He tossed the hand towel onto the table. “How are you doing, though? I know I keep asking but…I’m just worried you’ll get overwhelmed with everything. You’re trying to catch up on nearly twenty years of stuff.”

“It’s…Stressful.” Murder admitted. “Don’t know where to start. There’s so much. Missed a lot.”

“Just take it easy, man. There’s no rush to catch up. Last I looked, there wasn’t some rule that said you had to be caught up by a certain date.” Rowan leaned over to catch Murder’s gaze. “Don’t stress yourself out over movies, alright? Look, I have an idea. Why don’t we all go for a walk? I know you want to explore, but you’re not comfortable with leaving Indy by himself. It’ll be good for him to get out and walk around, anyway.”

He considered the offer for a moment and couldn’t deny that Rowan was right. Unfortunately, Murder didn’t know how Indy would handle it. Still, it wasn’t as if the teen had fully gotten his balance just yet: he still tended to wobble around a bit. Finally, Murder nodded. “Yes, but not too far.”

“That’s fine. There’s actually a decent sized pond that I want to show you. It’s not too far away and it’s not a bad walk. I keep a mowed path because I like to fish, sometimes. Figure we could head there, let him explore a bit, then wander back up to the house. It’ll let you do some exploring, he’ll get to stretch his legs and get some sunlight.” He grinned when the other man nodded again. “Great. Lemme go get my shoes on.”

Murder quickly finished his food and went to get his own shoes, as well as Indy’s. Then, he tried to figure out the best way to get the youngster to put the shoes on. He finally sat down next to him, and got his attention, then showed him the shoes and socks. Next, he put a sock on his own foot and gestured for Indy to do the same. Thankfully, the shoes Rowan had gotten the teen were the sort with Velcro straps instead of laces. Both of them had agreed that Indy likely didn’t have the finger dexterity to tie laces just yet.

Still, Indy’s inclination to mimic him made it pretty easy to get the shoes on and a few moments later, Murder was trying to coax him into following. First, he said Indy’s name, followed by the raptor noise equivalent of ‘come’, and then finally spoke, “Come.”

Indy stared at him like he was an idiot, before pointing at the tv to indicate that he was watching it. Frankly, Murder felt too impressed to be too terribly mad, but he repeated what he’d said moments before, only this time with a bit more of a command. After a moment, Indy huffed and pushed himself up to his feet in order to trudge after Murder. Behind them, Rowan laughed. “He seriously acts like you.”

“Unfortunately.” Murder agreed.

Once they were outside, Indy’s stubbornness turned to wonder as he followed Murder and Rowan. Frequently, something caught his attention and he wandered over to investigate. Murder didn’t have an issue with this and simply waited for him to satisfy his curiosity. It actually took them longer than it should have to reach the pond, but honestly, Murder didn’t mind. It pleased him to see Indy being curious instead of scared of everything.

Rowan sat down on the dock and watched Indy poke around in the water reeds. “He looks like he’s having fun.”

“He is. Getting to see new things.” He trailed off at the rapid-fire series of excited chirps Indy made and curiously walked over to see what had him so interested.

Immediately, Indy scrambled after something in the reeds and dove down onto the ground, but then scrambled on his hands and knees for a moment until he was able to get back up onto his feet again. A moment later, a decent sized frog leapt into the shorter grass in an attempt to escape its doom. Unfortunately, Indy managed to be faster and dived onto it again, grabbing it in his hands, and immediately shoving it into his mouth. A single leg hung out of his mouth for one comical moment before he quickly ate it.

Rowan covered his face with his hands and sighed while Murder just bemusedly watched Indy resume his explorations of the reeds. Looking over to the other man, “Don’t have to worry about lunch, I guess.”

“You’re making him brush his teeth when we get back to the house.”

This simply made Murder rumble out a laugh as he moved to follow Indy. He didn’t know if he could swim and didn’t want to risk him falling into the pond. Thankfully, Indy seemed more interested in poking around the shore than investigating the water. Eventually though, he started gently herding the youngster back towards the house…And just so Rowan didn’t bitch, had Indy brush his teeth.

Returning to the living room he flopped down in his chair with a sigh before grabbing his laptop to turn it on. “Went to take a nap.”

Rowan glanced up from the bar counter where he’d been flipping through a cookbook. “Ignoring the frog eating, he looked like he enjoyed himself. What about you?”

“It’s nice. Quiet. Would like to explore but…” He nodded towards the bedroom.

“Yeah, I get it. He kinda needs a lot of supervision right now, doesn’t he?” Rowan sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I know I shouldn’t be surprised because of what he is, but I still can’t believe he ate a fucking frog like that.”

Murder shifted his attention to the laptop. “Is good though. Means he’s getting better at moving around.”

“I know, I know. It’s just the principle of things.” Rowan looked about down at the cookbook and tapped his finger on the counter. “D’ya like lasagna?”

He stared at the computer screen for a moment, attempting to place a food to the word. It sounded familiar, but he wasn’t entirely sure what it was. Finally, he shook his head and sighed. “Don’t know.”

Initially, Rowan felt incredulous that Murder didn’t know, but he pushed away the emotion. Just with what little time he’d spent around the man, he’d quickly learned that he’d forgotten the names of things. “It’s a food you bake in the over. Long strips of pasta, cheese, tomato sauce, and meat…Usually ground hamburger. Here, lemme show you.”

A moment later, he stood next to Murder and had all but shoved the cookbook into the other’s face. “Since you like cheese, I figured I could add a bit more of that…And make it more meat heavy. Plus, Kaitlyn’s going to becoming out tomorrow and I kinda figured having something like that would be better than making her buy lunch.”

“Remember it now.” Murder nodded. “Is good.”

“Great!” Rowan grinned broadly and as quickly as he’d appeared next to Murder, was back in the kitchen to start pulling out all the ingredients.

The next morning, Murder woke up to the unusual sound of conversation in the living room. Sleepily, he rubbed his face and glanced over his shoulder at Indy who still remained asleep. It took him a moment of focusing to figure out who Rowan was talking to: Kaitlyn. Reaching over, he lightly smacked at his phone to get it to wake up and show the time. 9:24. Far too early, in Murder’s mind.

“They’re still asleep and I really don’t know how either of them will react to you being in the house.” Rowan stated, apologetically.

“Murder was always kind of territorial, wasn’t he?”

“I think Murder would be fine…It’s Indy I’m worried about.”

“Indy?”

Rowan sighed. “That’s…What we named the kid we found. He’s not talking…Not sure if he knows how. It was better than just calling him ‘boy’ or ‘kid’. Apparently, Murder likes Indiana Jones.”

The conversation faded off as the two went outside, leaving Murder to lay there feeling vaguely grumpy. Not only did he _not_ like being woken up early, he also didn’t like the idea of a physical exam. He felt fine, but also knew that Rowan would keep harping about things until he went through it. Finally, he pushed himself off the floor and briefly eyed Indy to make sure he hadn’t woken the other up, before he quietly made his way into the living room.

He looked towards the front door and watched the two humans for a moment. They were standing on the porch, backs to the house, while Rowan pointed out things, presumably telling Kaitlyn his plans for the property. While Murder would have preferred breakfast, Rowan had already warned him that Kaitlyn wanted to do a few fasting blood tests. Which meant he needed to get the exam over and done with so he could eat. Annoyed, he quietly rumbled as he walked to the door and stepped outside.

Kaitlyn turned around and stared up at him for a long moment. “Jesus, I’m going to break my neck if I have to stand this close to you.” Then, she looked to Rowan. “You could have warned me that he’s a fucking giant.”

“I kinda wanted to see your reaction.” Rowan had nothing short of a shit eating grin.

Murder ignored the banter in favor of sitting down on the step. This meant he was staring up at Kaitlyn, but supposed that the height difference was a lot smaller. “No more blue hair?”

Lightly, Kaitlyn touched her purple hair. “Well. Figured with Jurassic World gone and that chapter of my life being over, I needed a change of hair color. And…Uh… _Wow_ this is weird. Because I’m used to you being a raptor. Except…I can still kinda see it.”

“Right?!” Rowan gestured at Murder. “That’s what I’ve been saying all these years. There’s just something about him that screams ‘not human’.”

“Hey, is that Indy?”

Looking over his shoulder, Murder spied the teen standing in the living room, watching them warily. Getting back up, he went inside and with a great deal of coaxing, managed to get Indy out onto the porch. Kaitlyn stared at the two for a long, long moment before she finally spoke softly. “Wu cloned him.”

“Yeah. Figure he liked Murder’s design and tried to improve on it.” Rowan took a sip of his coffee.

“…He’s the Indoraptor, isn’t he?”

Rowan promptly choked, not expecting her to figure things out so quickly. “How the _fuck_ did you figure that out?”

“It’s not that hard, Rowan. You hauled home the Indoraptor, made no mention of having found another hybrid. Suddenly, you have young one who’s apparently named ‘Indy’. Indoraptor, Indy. It’s not that hard to figure out…But if he’s a partial clone of Murder, it makes sense that he’d be able to change.” She quietly watched Indy who’d moved to stand behind Murder, choosing to peer around the older hybrid at her.

“Don’t tell Owen.” Murder said, softly.

“Why? I’m sure he’d be a lot more sympathetic towards what happened at the Manor if he knew the truth. I mean…Murder, you killed your fair share of people at the park and Owen doesn’t hold it against you. Especially not Steve.”

Kaitlyn glanced over at Rowan when Murder didn’t reply immediately and had instead looked away. Rowan shook his head. “Give him a moment. He does that when he’s getting ready to talk a lot. I think he’s just trying to put all the words together.”

“Owen will want to see him. Indy’s scared of people, still scared of Rowan but is starting to trust, I think. He doesn’t like change. It upsets him. Just want to…” He trailed off, still unsure of what word he needed to use.

“I get it.” Kaitlyn nodded slightly. “You’re wanting to do the same thing Owen did for you: keep contact between the people he’s familiar with.”

Murder nodded. “Yes. Agreed for you to visit because of his health. Worried about how thin he is.”

“It honestly wouldn’t hurt to do a blood workup on him, but…” She frowned at how skittish Indy seemed.

“He mimics. See me doing it, maybe he will.”

“That’s not a bad idea.” Rowan mused. “I mean, he learned how to eat from watching you.”

Sitting back down on the step, Murder lightly nodded at Kaitlyn. Curiously, he watched her as she started opening up a bag of supplies. “No more park. What are you doing now?”

“I’m working at the Denver Zoo, now. I bounce between taking care of the reptiles and the birds…Mostly the birds of prey, but I’ll fill in where I’m needed. I’ll tell you, it’s nothing like working at Jurassic World.” After dragging her things over, she held up her hands but paused, recalling how Murder had never liked his head touched at the park. “Uh…Is it alright if I touch your head? Get that out of the way, first?”

After he nodded, she quickly started her exam. “Honestly, you look great, but I figure you’re sitting through this because Rowan’s been worrying?”

“I was not worrying.”

“He was.”

Kaitlyn quietly laughed at Rowan’s huff and stuck a thermometer in Murder’s mouth while she pulled her stethoscope and blood pressure cuff out of the bag. “I’m not surprised. He’s been worrying about you since he got off the island.”

When the thermometer beeped, she took it and glanced at the reading. “…Huh. 105. Same as when you were a raptor. You know, Rowan. I’m not going to have any sort of reference on what’s normal for him. He’s basically the only one of his kind. I mean, so far he’s healthy from what I’m seeing.” After listening to his breathing and heart, she looked back to Murder. “Any unusual aches or pains?”

“No.”

“Decrease in appetite?”

“No.”

“Cough, sneezing, or runny nose?”

“No.”

“Any trouble using the bathroom?”

“No.”

“Yeah, he’s fine. Gimmie your arm and I’ll take your blood pressure. I just hope the cuff I brought is big enough.” Quickly, she wrapped the blood pressure cuff around his arm and wrinkled her nose slightly before taking his blood pressure. Once she was done, she shrugged. “Blood pressure and pulse are both good as far as humans go. Rowan, come here and support his arm and I’ll get my blood samples.”

Murder sighed and stuck his arm out, not exactly thrilled with the idea of having his blood taken. Still, it had a two-fold reason: it’d get Rowan to shut up and it might convince Indy to allow himself to be examined. The tourniquet caused him to grimace slightly when it pinched the skin of his inner arm, prompting Kaitlyn to mumble out an apology.

“You have good veins, at least. I won’t have any problem getting blood.”

He sat there and quietly watched her switch out the vials before finally undoing the tourniquet, then pulling the needle out. A moment later, she had the crook of his elbow wrapped. “Done?”

“Yep. Think you can convince Indy to let me look him over?”

“Maybe. Rowan? Salami. Take the blood first. Reward him as we go.” Shifting his attention to Indy, he softly coaxed him over, then pulled the teen down so that he was sitting between his legs on the lower step. Reaching out, he suddenly ruffled Kaitlyn’s hair, ignoring the surprised sound the vet made. Then, he leaned over slightly and made a soft, reassuring noise to Indy.

Indy looked up at him, then to Kaitlyn, and back to Murder before finally giving a very slight nod.

“He’s a fast learner.” Gently, he held Indy’s arm for Kaitlyn and quietly sighed at the soft, distressed noise the teen made at seeing the needle. Using his other hand, he tilted Indy’s face away and pressed it against his shoulder. “Work fast.”

“Got’cha.”

Softly, he rumbled out a purr, even as Indy panted from stress. Gently, Murder scratched the side of Indy’s head as he watched Kaitlyn work. While she tried to work quickly, she was still limited by the speed of the blood flow. Still, when she finished wrapping Indy’s arm, she held up her hands to indicate that she was done. Immediately, Rowan swooped in and held a slice of salami in front of the teen’s nose. Indy quickly grabbed it and stuffed it in his mouth before trying to pull the bandage wrap off.

“No.” Gently, Murder put his hand on the bandage, then showed Indy how he still wore his bandage. Looking to Kaitlyn, “Check what you can.”

Between the three of them and half a bag of salami in the process, Indy got his checkup. After Kaitlyn had confirmed that she was done, Murder simply gave the teen the entire bag and shooed him further down the porch to eat. “Thoughts?”

“He’s pretty underweight, but as long as he’s eating, drinking, and using the bathroom okay, I think he’ll be fine. For now, I’d suggest getting some sort of meal replacer drink. Slim Fast, Ensure, or something like that and give it to him between meals. Those can add on anywhere from two to three hundred calories a serving. I’ll know more about his health once I get these samples shipped to the lab, though.” She glanced at Murder. “Probably wouldn’t hurt for you to have the same sort of drink on hand, either. I don’t know much about the whole shapeshifting thing, but I figure that it’d be pretty energy demanding.”

Murder nodded. “It is. Always very hungry after a lot of changing.”

“Otherwise? Just make sure he has access to healthy food.” Kaitlyn glanced at Indy who’d sat down to eat the salami. “I wouldn’t exactly call that healthy, but I can understand rewarding him. He was stressing himself pretty badly.”

“Nah. I make sure these two get good food.” Rowan sat down on the porch. “They’ll eat pretty much anything, so it’s easy to cook for them. I don’t think I’ve found anything that either of them won’t eat, so far. I mean, I’ve only been cooking for them for a few days, but…”

“I’m sure you’ll find something.” Kaitlyn laughed. “Anyway. I need to get these samples shipped. I’ll be back later to visit.”

Once she left, Rowan looked towards Indy with a frown. “He was terrified of her taking his blood. I just…What did they _do_ to him to make him scared of everything?”

“…He said I’d be perfect. Didn’t see me as a person, I don’t think.”

“Who? The guy who did this,” Rowan gestured at Murder, “To you?”

Rather than replying, Murder simply got up and went into the house to get himself breakfast.


	8. Lunch and Reflections

“This is good.” Kaitlyn commented, abruptly, and gestured at the lasagna with her fork before she took another bite of her food.

Rowan grinned broadly at the compliment. After getting all the blood samples shipped, Kaitlyn had returned for lunch…Mostly so she could observe Murder and Indy as a means of making sure that they were both settling in nicely. Presently, Indy had flopped himself over on the couch so he could watch tv. Murder, meanwhile, quietly ate his own lasagna and squinted at something on his laptop.

“So, how’s Murder doing with all the modern stuff?”

“He’s doing pretty good. I mean, he’s kinda stressing a little at how much he has to catch up on, but Indy’s also keep him distracted. He’s not stressing so badly that he’s hurting himself, or anything. I’m explaining things to him as he comes to me with questions, because there’s a lot of newer technology that he doesn’t know about.” Rowan replied as he got up to get himself another helping. “But it’s only been a couple of days, so I’m sure as hell not expecting him to suddenly know about everything. Don’t worry, though. I’m keeping a close eye on him.”

“Right here…” Murder grumped, annoyed at how the two were talking about him as if he wasn’t there. Then, he leaned in slightly to stare intently at something on his laptop before he quietly muttered to himself, “What the fuck.”

Rowan set his plate down and held up a finger as he went into the living room. “What’s up?”

Murder immediately jabbed a finger at the laptop screen which had an image of colorful towerlike entity with legs on it. Then, he spoke matter of factly. “What the fuck is that?”

“I…Have no idea?” Rowan sounded and felt beyond confused. Under the image was the word ‘Stakataka’. He had zero idea on what it meant.

“Exactly.”

Rowan looked towards Kaitlyn who look half amused and half confused. Looking back to Murder he crouched down to get a better look at the website. ‘Bulbapedia’? That…Told him nothing. “So, what’s this website?”

Still irritated, Murder ignored his question, then quickly scrolled down the page and clicked a link, displaying several more colorful creatures. “New gen Pokémon suck.”

“You know, I don’t know what any of these are.” Rowan ignored the quiet giggling coming from the kitchen.

“ _No one_ should know what any of these are.” Frowning, Murder clicked around a bit more to discover which game the Pokémon were in. “Pokémon Ultra Moon is pure _bullshit_.”

Kaitlyn, leaned against the counter. “Pokémon fan, huh? Did you play the games?”

“Yes.” Murder looked up to focus on the paleovet. “Had all the games.”

“What was the newest one released before you got on Sorna?”

“Crystal.” He frowned slightly. “Was working on fighting the gym leaders before the plane crash.”

She nodded. “I liked that one. So…Most useless Pokémon in the entire game.”

Murder went quiet for a moment and tilted his head for a moment as he considered the question. “Unown. Can’t learn moves, can’t evolve. Magikarp isn’t much better, but…”

Rowan could only stare at Murder started rattling off the pros and cons of different Pokémon. While he didn’t understand most of what the other man said, it was amazing just listening to him _talk._ Especially since he wasn’t one to speak very much to begin with. It also meant that Rowan needed to do his own research and figure out which Pokémon games to get Murder…Maybe get a better understanding of the game, he assumed, just so he wouldn’t be completely in the dark when Murder talked about them. Then, just like that, Murder went quiet and shifted his attention back to the laptop.

After a moment, Rowan went back into the kitchen and finally grabbed his second helping of lasagna. “I had no idea he liked Pokémon.”

Kaitlyn tilted her head slightly. “How much _do_ you actually know about him, Rowan?”

“Not much, if I’m honest. We really didn’t get a lot of chances to seriously talk at the Park. Most of the time it was me taking quick orders for what he wanted for lunch. When I snuck him out of the pen, I tried to get him to answer questions but…” He shook his head to indicate that Murder hadn’t really ever answered his questions. “I didn’t really try to pry, either. I was more interested in keeping him a secret from everyone.”

“Well, like I always said: Owen and I would have been happy to help you if we’d known.” She pushed away her plate. “But I absolutely get your reasoning on why you kept him a secret, and as much as I don’t like it, I also understand why you’re wanting to keep Indy a secret from Owen. It’s going to have to come out, at some point, though. You know that, right, Rowan?”

“I know, I know. I just…I’m hoping that we can get Indy to where he’s a bit more…Human, I guess. I don’t know if we’ll get him to that point, but…” Rowan sighed and looked towards Indy who’d rolled onto his back. "I’m still kinda worried about what Owen’ll think. I mean, yeah. Owen’s okay with Murder, but Murder was also a kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and didn’t ask to be experimented on.”

“That’s true, but if you’re going with that line of thinking, Indy didn’t ask to be made. He’s as much of a victim as Murder is, just a different type.” Getting up, she grabbed her plate to put it in the sink. “I’ve known Owen a lot longer than you have. Not just from a friendship point of view, but also a professional stand point. He’s _always_ been about the welfare of the dinosaurs. The IBRIS Project was testing the intelligence of the raptors, but a lot of what Owen discovered ended up being used for the dinosaurs park wide. You should really tell him as soon as you can. He’ll be pissed at you for lying, but he’ll calm down if you point out that he’d do the same for Blue.”

Rowan looked towards Indy who’d gotten up to clamber into Murder’s chair. The elder hybrid simply made an annoyed sound as he held the laptop to the side and scooted over to give the younger one room. Quite quickly, Indy wedged himself down against Murder’s side and the arm of the chair, then curiously poked at the laptop screen once it had returned to Murder’s lap. Occasionally, he made quiet noises and glanced up at Murder.

Curiously, Kaitlyn walked back to the counter and leaned against it as she watched the two. “I always knew Owen’s raptors could communicate with each other and had learned key words or phrases in English, but…Look at that. There’s an actual language, isn’t there?”

“Murder says so. He said Indy already learned his ‘raptor name’.” Rowan joined her at the counter, but also worked on eating his food. “It’s kinda similar to the call Murder had for me at the park. He’s been working on giving human words to raptor sounds, too…Plus just teaching Indy the names of things. And how to be a human.”

“How to be a human?”

“Oh man. Everything Indy knows? Murder’s had to teach him. He didn’t even know what a sandwich was, for Christ’s sake. When we got him to the house, he bolted after I closed the back of the U-Haul and apparently changed into a human, at some point. Murder said it was probably the stress of everything, but he doesn’t know for sure. So, once Murder found him and brought him back, he had to start teaching him how to eat, how to walk, what the bathroom was about, everything.” Rowan finally set his plate down. “He’s doing better already, though. He can feed himself, use the bathroom, clean himself, and all that stuff. Indy’s fucking fast at learning.”

“So, like Murder?” Kaitlyn laughed, causing Indy to briefly look over at her before he nested down against Murder’s side.

“To be honest? Exactly like him.” After a moment, he stepped around the counter and snagged the blanket off the top of the recliner for Murder, then covered both the hybrids up. Motioning to Kaitlyn, he pointed at the backdoor that led out of the kitchen and onto the back porch. After stepping out with her, he grinned slightly. “Nap time.”

“Old habits die hard, huh?” She noted, recalling how Murder always took a nap after eating breakfast and lunch.

“Yup! Him and Indy both. After they finish eating, they’ll curl up somewhere and knock out for an hour or so. Usually in Murder’s recliner or in their room.”

“They sleep together?” This caused Kaitlyn to raise an eyebrow.

Rowan nodded. “It sounds weird, I know, but Murder says Indy gets upset if he doesn’t. Murder’s not really a fan of it, but we both think Indy was basically kept alone for most of his life. He sees Murder as something safe and is clingy.”

“That makes sense and…Well, they’re not human. Can’t apply human social norms to them.” Kaitlyn finally looked towards the forest. “This is really a nice place you have picked out. How many acres?”

“200, but no one lives in the local area so it’s technically a lot more.” He pointed at a small building a short way away. “Hell, we’re even on well water.”

“That’s a nice amount for them to wander around on.”

“It is.” From there, he started pointing out different areas near to the house to indicate where he wanted to put a garden, maybe have some chickens, perhaps a shed for Murder to hang out in if he didn’t feel like being inside…All sorts of different things. “I didn’t want to really expand because I didn’t know if he was even alive. With him being here and off Nublar? I kinda feel like I can move forward.”

Kaitlyn gently nudged him in the ribs. “You care about him more than you let on.”

Lightly, he rubbed his side. “I guess. I’ve always felt bad for him. From what he’s told me, it’s just been one shitty thing after another. He didn’t ask for any of that shit to happen to him, and I just…He deserves to be happy, doesn’t he?”

“He does, and I think you’re doing a good job.” She leaned against the railing and considered for a bit. “It’s not really my area of expertise, but I have access to journals and research papers. I could try sending you some psychology papers? They’re both going to have weird quirks because of their history and it might help you figure out what to do.”

“Ah, jeeze, yeah. Murder’s forgotten the names of a lot of stuff. He didn’t know what lasagna was until I described it and showed him a picture. I try not to be surprised, but it’s hard. So, even with him working with Indy, I’m going to have to work with him. He’s only had…What, a 5th or 6th grade education?” Rowan stared out at the forest for a moment. “Maybe I could get him some work books and modern history books? Just to bring him up to speed on things? At the very least, a history book so he’s not in the dark over what’s happened between 2000 and now.”

“I think that’s a fantastic idea. He’s probably having trouble because he hasn’t needed to use certain parts of his learned skills. Use it or lose it, basically. So, reading for sure. The laptop was a great idea, by the way. It’ll definitely help him learn about things. Probably wouldn’t hurt to find something that he can just rattle on about to help his speech skills, too.”

Looking back to Kaitlyn, Rowan grinned. “Yeah. I’m going to do some research on Pokémon, maybe post on some forums to get recommendations on what I can get him. Because…Holy shit, Kaitlyn. That’s the most I’ve _ever_ heard him talk. If that’s what helps him? I’ll fuckin’ buy every damn Pokémon thing he wants.”

“He’s not a big talker?”

“Kinda? He’s very…Terse, I guess. He says things in as few words as possible. Like, earlier? Instead of saying ‘I had all of the games’ he said ‘had all the games’. He pretty much always talks like that and it gets even worse when he’s stressed. There’s been one or two times when we were still at the Park where he just couldn’t talk because he’d stressed himself so badly. Once he calmed down, he was okay.” Rowan frowned heavily and looked down. “He said he never did that before the Park.”

“And there it is.” She sighed, immediately pinpointing why Rowan wanted to help Murder so badly. “You feel guilty that you helped cause his issues.”

Wordlessly, Rowan nodded, but didn’t look up to meet her gaze. Realistically, he knew that he did the best he could given the circumstances, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he couldn’t have made things better for Murder in some way. “We basically threw him in solitary. I’ve…Been there. When I was mercing, but it wasn’t nearly as long as Murder and I knew my team would come get me. Murder didn’t have that. He had _no one_. Looking back, I can see why he started hurting himself. I…I think that when he got sick and you thought he’d given up, that he actually had and wanted to die. Don’t know what brought him out of it and why he started fighting again.”

“He did though, and that’s what matters. Rowan, he’s off the island and he’s in a place where he can thrive. You need to stop beating yourself up over what happened at the Park. You’ve had three years to plan and mope.” She tilted her head towards the door. “He’s here now and you need to focus on that, instead.”

“I know, it’s ju—OW!” Rowan rubbed the back of his head and glared down at the paleovet.

“You whining and bitching about what happened three years ago won’t do him any good. He doesn’t know anything about the world now and you’re going to need to help him. He also seems like the type that would let you know if he was angry about something. Has he given you any sort of indication that he’s mad at you?”

He shook his head. “He’s not even mad at Owen for trying to train him. He said he doesn’t care because Owen didn’t know.”

“Then why the fuck are you still worrying?” Kaitlyn stared at him.

Rowan sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. I think…I went to Nublar and half expected to come back empty handed. Then I find out that Wu not only fucking _cloned_ him, but fucked with his clone’s DNA to make Indy, who’s arguably in worse shape than Murder ever was. It’s…It’s been a wild few days and I think I’ve been too busy to really have a moment to process all this shit. I mean…What if there’s more out there, like Indy? I mean, yeah. The Manor was, as far as we know, the only place Wu was working. Speaking of the fuck, do we know if he’s even alive?”

“Yeah. No one knows if he is or not. Hope the asshole is dead, but…” She shrugged, but then shifted her attention to the door when a still half-asleep Murder wandered out onto the porch. “Have a nice nap?”

Murder simply made a sleepy noise and immediately yawned. Then, he finally gestured over his shoulder. “Indy’s still asleep.”

“Managed to extract yourself, huh?” Rowan grinned.

“Yes.” Murder didn’t share Rowan’s amusement and simply stared out at the forest. While he wanted to explore, he also didn’t feel comfortable with leaving Indy with Rowan. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the other man, he most definitely did, he just didn’t think Indy trusted him.

“Wanting to explore?” At Murder’s nod, Rowan frowned and thought for a moment. “Lemme guess, worried about Indy?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you just poke around in the immediate area? If there’s any problems, I can yell for you.” Rowan, of course, was still thinking. “It’ll work until I can get something better set up. I’d probably have to go to the store to buy a small purse or something that we can put your cell phone in…But until then, how’s that sound?”

Murder considered this for a moment and then nodded. “Works.”

Before either of the two humans could protest, Murder had already stripped, shoved his clothes into Rowan’s arms, shifted, and darted off for the tree line. Rowan looked down at the bundle of clothes in his arms and simply sighed.

“…You know. I didn’t fly out here with the intention of seeing Murder’s naked ass. I mean, it’s not a bad one, but…Does he do that often?” Kaitlyn, meanwhile, sounded highly amused, despite the noises that she’d just heard while Murder shifted.

“Yes, yes he does.” Despite his exasperation, Rowan couldn’t help but smile at the sound of a raptor bark echoing from the forest.


	9. Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away, Please Stay the Day

Murder woke to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance and rain pattering against the window. For a moment, his half-asleep brain made him think that he was still on Nublar. The soft blankets under him and the faint smell of cooking food told him otherwise. Sleepily, he glanced over his shoulder at Indy who’d buried his head under one of the blankets. Truthfully, he wasn’t a fan of the teen insisting on sharing his nest. He hadn’t shared his nests with anyone since Michael had died and didn’t know if he would do so, again.

At least, in a romantic sense. He’d shared his nests with Rowan plenty of times at the park, but that had been out of need for companionship. Murder has assumed that he’d been strong enough to be by himself because of how he’d survived on Sorna for so long after Michael had died. Of course, once he’d been reintroduced to basic social interaction, he’d quickly realized that he’d been an idiot. While he wasn’t a fan of crowds or a lot of people, he still needed some sort of day to day interaction. In that regard, he considered Rowan to be a staunch packmate.

Indy was something else entirely and Murder didn’t exactly know what to consider him. Instinct had finally settled on the idea of ‘offspring’ and demanded that he protect the teen. For the most part, instinct never steered him wrong and had saved his life a number of times, but this…He wasn’t so sure about.

Murder wasn’t a fool. He knew he had his fair share of issues, both emotional and random quirks he’d picked up over the years. It left him wondering if he could even raise Indy properly, given that the other likely had his own issues from being raised in the lab. Already, he knew about the teen’s fear of the dark, but what else was there that hadn’t popped up yet?

Murder still found himself wondering how similar Indy would be to him in terms of personality. The whole…Nature vs nurture argument that had existed for eons. Indy was curious about things, a trait Murder shared, but again. How much of that was from him being a clone and how much was simply from being exposed to new things? Murder couldn’t be sure. Then again, he’d only been around Indy for a week now and was still trying to figure out the teen’s personality.

As a human, Indy was a stark contrast to what he’d been as a…’Raptor’ wasn’t the right word, but it was as good as Murder could do. Either way, he couldn’t really blame Indy for being as skittish as he was. He’d been thrust, likely painfully, into a whole new world. He was small…Fragile compared to what he once was, prey when he was used to being a predator, and in a completely unfamiliar place. It really hadn’t been any wonder on why he’d attached himself to Murder. After all, he’d done similar after his change and attached himself to Michael. It also made him wonder when Indy would try to change back into a raptor. Then again, it was still up in the air on which form would be Indy’s default.

Finally, Murder stretched and was careful not to elbow the other in the face. The need to use the bathroom and get food had started to overrule his desire to stay in the nest. After another moment of grumpy consideration, he got up and meandered into the bathroom.

Rowan had made a few more trips to the store in the week since their arrival at the house and thoroughly stocked the bathroom with everything the two hybrids needed. All personal care items were either unscented or hypoallergenic to avoid bothering sensitive noses. About the only scented thing in the bathroom remained the hand soap…Which Indy had avoided trying to eat, again. Apparently, the first time had been enough of a learning experience.

After washing his face and using the bathroom, he wandered into the living room. Murder still felt sleepy and entirely blamed it on the current weather. Here, the sound and scent of rain was louder and stronger thanks to Rowan having opened the back door. The man in question sat at the table with his laptop open, then jumped when he finally noticed Murder.

“How the fuck are you so quiet?” Rowan grouched as he pulled his cup of coffee closer, but then gave a faint smile to show that he wasn’t angry.

“Practice.” Murder replied as he continued to the stove to see what the food offerings were. After finding them satisfactory, he dished himself up a plate and sat down to eat.

Rowan quietly sighed, but couldn’t disagree with what Murder said, considering their first encounter. “So, Indy’s still asleep?”

“Yes. Starting to sleep better. Doesn’t wake up, now. Needs lots of rest to heal.” He focused on the sausage and rolled the bit of meat around on his tongue to savor the taste. While still able to detect different flavors as a raptor, raptor tongues weren’t as sensitive as human tongues. Besides, he couldn’t remember the last time he had sausage.

The low, content, rumble that bordered on a purr caused Rowan to look up from his laptop. He’d heard Murder purr as a raptor, once or twice. As a raptor, it’d always been a raspy noise deep in his chest that could be mistaken for a general rumble of contentment. It sounded completely different when Murder made it as a human. Now, it sounded closer to what a large feline might make.

He watched the other man for a moment, feeling both proud and sad at Murder’s enjoyment. Proud that he’d found something the hybrid enjoyed, but said at the knowledge that it might have been twenty years since he last ate…Whatever he was currently enjoying. “What’cha eating?”

Murder glanced up, the purr sputtering out. “Sausage.”

“Like it?”

He looked away slightly, feeling somewhat embarrassed over the purring. Truthfully, he didn’t know if he needed to act like a human or if he could be himself. Finally, he focused back on Rowan and wordlessly nodded.

Picking up on the unspoken embarrassment, Rowan just grinned. “Awesome. I’ll make sure to get more, then. I don’t really know what you like, so I’m just trying to make different things for you since I know it’s been literal years since you’ve had a lot of foods. Do you want me to put a list on the counter so you can write down foods you like or want?”

“Yes.”

“Look, Murder. I know you’re not human and fuck…You’ve been a hybrid longer than you were human. You’re _not_ going to act human. I know it, Owen knows it, and Kaitlyn knows it. You don’t have to hide it, and that’s why I got a place in bum fuck nowhere. I wanted you to hide it at the park because I was _terrified_ that people would find out and…God, I figured I’d never see you again because you’d get hauled off to some lab and have only God knows what done to you.” He looked down at his coffee cup. “I know I’ve probably said it before, but this past week has been a wild ride and I’m still processing the fact that you’re here and you’re alive.”

“You didn’t like me. What changed?” Murder tilted his head, slightly. While at the park, they never really had many chances to talk freely. It’d always been a risk, especially with Owen’s tendency to show up late at night.

This line of questioning caused Rowan to focus intently on his coffee cup and thumb the half-faded words printed on it. Murder wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t know if he wanted to admit it out of fear of how the other might react.

“Rowan?”

“At first…I did.” Rowan started, carefully, but didn’t look up. “I thought the whole briefing they gave us was bullshit, that something like you couldn’t exist…And Christ, Murder. Then you found me and I saw you change. I, uh…I thought you were a freak and only wanted to finish off my contract and get the fuck off the island before they killed me. And I was scared of you. I saw what you did to the team and I knew what you were capable of. I didn’t want to be near that.”

Murder remained impassive and silent. A lot of what Rowan had said he already suspected.

“I just…I started thinking about things and realized that you were as much of a prisoner as I was. At that point, I didn’t know that you’d been human and just assumed you were made in a test tube…Didn’t realize that the truth was so much worse. I guess…I guess I’m a bit of a sap because the more I was around you and the more I just saw that… _Spark_ fade, the more I realized how wrong everything was. Even if you had been just a raptor, every aspect of your care was fucked. And…Then I got attached.” Finally, Rowan looked up, half afraid of how Murder would react.

Rather than speaking, Murder simply nodded and resumed eating.

They sat there for a moment, in silence, for several minutes before Rowan spoke again. “What the fuck, Murder.”

“What?” Murder looked back up, a vague expression of confusion on his face.

“You’re not going to say anything?”

“Nothing to say.”

“No. Nuh-uh. Not doing that bullshit. You’re impossible to read on the best of days. I wanna know what you’re thinking so I’m not sitting here and worrying that I pissed you off.” Rowan couldn’t help but glare at how nonchalant Murder seemed to be about the whole issue.

Murder sighed and then shrugged. “What’s there to say? Not angry. Asked a question, got an answer.”

Rowan made a noise of frustration. Getting information from Murder, at times, could be impossible. It almost always relied on asking the right question, and even then, Murder would usually answer in the most literal and blunt way possible. “So, you don’t care that I thought you were a freak?”

“Am I freak. Shouldn’t exist. Abomination would fit well.” Murder shrugged, again, not really seeing why Rowan had turned it into such an issue. “You thought one thing. Changed your mind. Was over two years ago. Why be bothered?”

It honestly caught him off guard to hear Murder refer to himself in such a way and Rowan nearly wanted to protest. Yet…Murder had said it in such an unbothered way, like someone might refer to the color of their hair. For him, it was just another aspect of his life. A concept that Rowan struggled to wrap his mind around. Then again, it pointed out a sharp contrast in their personalities.

For years, Rowan had struggled with his sexuality after a harsh rejection from his family. Not unsurprising, given that they were Catholic, but it hurt, regardless. He’d bristled at the mere suggestion of being anything but straight for the longest time, until he’d been able to accept things, at least. Quietly, he snorted at the idea of Murder being faced with a similar situation. Quite likely, the hybrid would have a bored expression and simply say ‘your point?’.

Focusing back on the present, Rowan still struggled on understanding Murder’s indifference. “But…Why aren’t you bothered?”

This time, Murder made an exasperated sigh. Where Rowan couldn’t grasp his indifference about the situation, he couldn’t grasp why Rowan saw it as a big deal. “You’re Pack.”

“I’m…What?” Rowan understood the meaning of the word, but not what it meant in this context. “I don’t understand.”

Murder furrowed his brows as he tried to translate what Pack meant from raptor to human. It wasn’t just family or a close group of friends, but something more. After a moment, he began speaking and struggled to put into words on what Pack meant to him. “It’s more than family or good friends. It’s…Trust. Very strong trust. Where you would risk everything.”

Quite frankly, the explanation left Rowan a bit speechless. Not only had he never thought Murder saw him in such a way, it also put the other’s behavior towards him in a different light. “How long have you considered me Pack?”

“I don’t know. Started relying on you for different things. Went from there.”

“Is that why you were always protective of me?” He focused intently on Murder who nodded slightly. “But…Why?”

“You cared. You tried to make it better. I forgot what being touched felt like during the years of being alone. Didn’t want to lose it…Didn’t want to be alone, again.” Murder knew it made him sound like a hypocrite, especially when he’d ran when Rowan had left to find a way to let him out of the pen. Quietly, he snorted as he remembered something. “Missed the shitty jokes.”

The seriousness of the conversation was quickly ended by Murder’s off hand comment, and Rowan couldn’t help but laugh, an action that broke the subtle tension that’d built up. “Yeah. I missed getting to hang out with you. Even if I bitched, I always thought the keep away games were fun. Look, uh…Not to change the subject, but Kaitlyn e-mailed the results on the blood work. I want to tell you before I forget.”

Murder tilted his head curiously. “And?”

“She said that you’re fine, the best she can tell. Indy, on the other hand, is low on his vitamin D, and she recommends getting him a supplement and letting him flop out in the sun every day.” Rowan shrugged slightly. “You already want him to sun himself, and I agree because that boy is pale as fuck. So, I want to bounce some ideas off you to set him up with something on the porch that he can nap on…Maybe you, too, if you’re interested.”

“Yes. Sunning is good.”

“Okay, good. Also…I seriously want you to teach me raptor lingo. You’re always making little noises to Indy and I want to be able to roughly translate it. Maybe learn to mimic some of the sounds, just to maybe help him to learn to trust me.” Rowan looked down at his laptop. “I kinda see him like I saw you at the park, I guess.”

A soft, fussy noise from the hallway caused Murder to look over at a sleep mussed Indy who wore a somewhat concerned expression. The roll of thunder caused him to hunker down slightly and quietly warble. Murder held out his arm and gently gestured while making a gentle rumble. Once Indy had sat down next to him, he pushed the leftovers of his breakfast over to the teen.

“Man, I bet he doesn’t know what thunder or rain is.” Rowan stated, unhappily.

Murder nodded. “Will take him onto the porch after he eats.”

“You sure that’s a good idea? What if he bolts?” He focused on how the young hybrid seemed to flinch anytime the thunder got a bit too loud.

“He won’t.” Lightly, he rubbed Indy’s upper back, prompting the teen to lean into him.

After Indy had cleared the plate, Murder got up and carefully coaxed him to the screen door. There, the scent of rain was the strongest, prompting the teen to press his nose against the screen and sniff. However, he flinched and took a step back at a loud rumble. Then, he tilted his head and looked up at Murder who hadn’t reacted to the sound. After a moment, he returned to stand beside the elder hybrid since Murder didn’t seem bothered by the sound. Curiously, he tilted his head as he focused on the water that fell off the edge of the roof.

Finally, Murder propped the door open and stepped out onto the porch, ignoring Indy’s concerned warble. He walked to the edge of the porch and leaned against one of the supporting columns, then closed his eyes as he enjoyed the cool breeze. It brought back memories of a different time, happy memories…Memories where he sat on a rock by a waterfall on a hot summer day, feet splashing in the cold water while a golden eyed boy sat next to him and told a funny story.

A quiet chirp from behind him caused Murder to open his eyes and look towards Indy who had tentatively stepped out of the house. The boy in his memories was long gone, barely a man when he died, and forever interred in a waterfall cave on Sorna. That chapter of his life had ended some time ago and he doubted Michael wanted him to focus on the past when he had the future to look forward to.

Slowly, Indy inched towards where he stood and scrutinized the falling water before carefully reaching out to touch it. He jerked his hand back, then sniffed of the water that covered his hand. Deeming it a nonthreat, he stuck his hand back out and looked up with an expression of wonder. At least until there was a loud crack of thunder that sent him scrambling back into the house with a sharp alarm call. There, he stood in the living room, legs splayed slightly and called to Murder, clearly disapproving of the elder hybrid’s insistence of staying on the porch.

Murder chose to linger a bit longer, but finally went inside when small bits of hail started bouncing on the ground, a hint that the storm had intensified a bit. Once inside, Indy trailed after him and made fussy noises, fully intending to express his unhappiness over Murder’s actions.

“He’s getting chatty.” Rowan commented with a laugh.

“Settling in.” Murder noted and stopped abruptly, just so Indy would run into him. While certain that the whole thing looked comical, he just felt exasperated. Finally, he turned around and stared down at Indy. “What?”

Indy stared up at him, seemingly confused, then began making a low noise, as if unsure of what sound to make. Murder remained very unamused.

“ _Fuck_.” Indy declared, quite suddenly, the word somewhat distorted as he hadn’t exactly figured out how to work human lips for the proper sounds needed for speech.

Murder blinked a few times before looking over to Rowan as the man spat out his coffee, laughing. Quite quickly, he started gasping for air from how hard he was laughing.

Proud of himself, Indy turned and wandered to the couch in order to find something on tv to watch. This left Murder to finally rumble in amusement over the whole thing. “Not a surprising first word.”

Rowan made a sound akin to a wheeze. “Oh my God. The look on your face. But wow. Do you think he knows what he said or is he mimicking?”

Honestly, Murder could only shrug. “He’s smart. Should encourage it.”

“Yeah, for sure, but… _Goddamn_.” Rowan started giggling again, prompting an eyeroll from the hybrid.


End file.
